Demonic Infection Book One: The Darckness Within
by Venom1409
Summary: What happen when a terrible event rips away at the very core of a group of individuals, incinerating all hope in blaze of dissaster, but from the ashes will rise new hope, new oppurtunties, new horror, new fear and new power....My first fanfic, please R
1. The Beginning Of The End

Authors note: This story does not and will not contain any of the original characters of the Inuyasha Anime/Manga. It has been placed in this category because it uses a lot of the themes and certain details about demons and other features used in the series. It may have hints towards the feudal era later on in the story and even possible character references but none of the original characters will make an appearance in this story. Please read and reveiw because i greatly need some openions and maybe some advice about the direction of this strory. Ide really like to know what my readers think about my story.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the references used in this story.

There are times when an event so startling, so sudden, so shocking rocks the foundation of our lives. These events cause heartache, joy, sadness, pain, hatred, happiness, anger… we'll never understand why these things happen the way they do. We can only hope to handle the repercussions the best we can. They can be horrible atrocities or wonderful occasions. Sometimes they become both. But when they become painful to only those of which you love, and not yourself, what is it? A blessing that you survived the torment, or a curse that you feel nothing for their suffering? You do your best to withstand your hurt; you are blind to everyone else. All we can do is try to handle our problems and just move on with our own lives…

But what if we can't…?

What if the past still haunts you…?

What if you can't fight your fear… and have to run…?

Alone, frightened, ashamed, lost…

With no one to help you, because you gave up on their problems… on their needs.

You focused on your own, to heal yourself. But you can't… not alone. You know no other way to live than to be absolutely independent, with nothing to hold you back except yourself. A monster, a shell devoid of the life that you once had… no more…

Maybe you try to fight it. The change… the transition into a creature not yourself. Was it hard? Did it destroy you? Or did you win? Become who you were, the hero. The savior to your friends, the one they loved. Or did it win, and uses your very existence? Manipulates you in a way that makes you wish you were dead… wishing that it had destroyed you?

This is a gruesome tale of such events….betrayal, pain, darkness….death…..

* * *

'I'm going to be mauled' the young man thought as he drove down the long, lonely highway. 'It's been a long time since I've seen all of them; I can't wait to get there'. As he approached a house on top of a steep hill, he began to slow down to make his turn. 'I just hope nothing has changed too much since I've been gone.' He drove up the hill into the front yard, already littered with parked vehicles from, what he hoped was, all of his friends. His eyes caught a young teenage girl with long dirty blonde hair talking to a boy about her age with short red hair.

The two teenagers shielded their eyes from his bright lights.

"Travis!" the girl yelled giddily as she ran toward the car.

"Jessy!" Travis yelled sarcastically, making fun of the small teenage girl as he stepped out of the car and closed the door. Jessy suddenly jumped from a few feet away, straight towards him, and he instinctively caught her.

'Wow …' he smiled inwardly, 'I've gotten much stronger since I left for the war'

"Check it out, Travis has grown some muscle," the red haired boy stated.

"Ya, a war will do that to you, Joey." Travis said sarcastically. Travis suddenly realized he still had Jessy in his arms and he set her down gently. "So who's all here right now?" he looked around at all the cars that he recognized so well and instantly knew the answer.

"Well lets just go in and see" Jessy was giddy with anticipation because she knew how excited everyone would be when she announced Travis's arrival. "Look who's here!" she yelled and instantly she could see Zach's face light up and a small blonde teenager ran into the other room. Before Jessy went outside, she could remember that Zach could not talk about anything except how he couldn't wait to see his best friend for the first time in almost a year. He had come home for two weeks for R&R about four months into the deployment but two weeks isnt really that satisfying as he originally thought it would be.

Jessy made sure the blonde girl was out of site before she signaled for Travis to come in.

Travis jumped through the door and yelled "Ta-Dah!" as he made a strange motion with his hands.

"Travis!" Zach yelled as he jumped up, ran over to Travis and scooped him up in a huge bear hug.

"Midget!" a long armed, lanky, teenager with long black hair yelled from his position on the floor.

"Ok, Zach, your crushing me" Travis choked out.

"Sorry." he apologized as he put down his small friend. Travis was the shortest one in the room and the height difference was extremely apparent when he stood next to Zach, Zach standing at 6'3 while Travis a mere 5'2. Zach was dumbstruck when his body suddenly lifted off the ground and he felt an enormous pressure around his midsection. Zach looked down and was surprised to see that Travis was actually giving him a bear hug back. He looked around at all the other surprised faces in the room.

"Holy crap" Joey exclaimed in surprise as he passed them walking through the door.

"Hey Brian get over here." Zach exclaimed excitedly as he pounded his chest with his fist and smiled at Travis who smiled back and repeated this gesture. Brian jumped up and ran to stand between them, forming a triangle as he copied the gesture. They all threw their hands out and into the triangle with their thumb, index, and middle fingers extended, locking all their hands together. They then all simultaneously pulled inward, slamming all three of their bodies into a triple bear hug.

"What the hell was that?" Niki exclaimed, chuckling at her three goofy friends and how funny Travis looked standing so close to the two tallest people in the room.

"You guys are such dorks." Jessy called out to them "its kinda like a secret hand shake but they hug at the end." she explained.

The three boys pulled out of the hug and laughed. "Wow its been a long time since we've done that." Brian smiled down at his small friend. "It just didn't feel right to do that without you, buddy." Travis lifted Brian from the ground and attempted to crush the life out of him before Brian could return the favor. Brian then lifted Travis off the ground and began to squeeze affectionately.

"I've missed you dude." Travis said playfully punched Brian in the chest and smiled up at him.

"Missed you to, man" Brian returned the punch in the arm and pushed him a little with his fist. Brian walked back to his seat and noticed that the whole room was watching their odd display of affection. "Hey we have known each other since the fifth grade so don't be a bunch of prudes."

Travis looked around to examine all his friends that he hadn't seen in so long. From left to right he scanned the room. Joey retook his place back on the one-seat elephant chair that he was always sitting in every time he went to William's house. 'At least that hasn't changed' he thought. Joey's seat hadn't changed but he had, his hair was short now and his eyes contained much more sadness than the fun-loving Joey he used to know. He turned his attention toward the love seat in which sat Jackie and Nikki. Jackie's long black hair had grown longer and Travis had forgotten how goofy Jackie looked with his buckteeth and huge glasses. Nikki hadn't changed at all, her jet-black hair still only went down to her shoulders and her dark complexion still complemented her brown eyes. He then looked on the floor right next to the love seat and there sat Guy, stretched out on the floor using his arms as props holding up his torso. Guy, of course, hadn't changed much either except that his hair had gotten a little bit longer, besides that, he was still the same man as before. He still wore those small glasses on his face he still had that long skinny body and neck that made him slightly look like a giraffe. Travis then turned his attention toward the couch in which sat William and Brian. William hadn't changed much except that he was slightly more muscular, his brown hair had gotten shorter and his blue eyes still contained the same goofy William and, just as before, they masked a lot of pain. Brian was still the same skinny man as he was when Travis had left, same green eyes, same long died-black hair, just the same old Brian. Then, there's Zach he was the same down to the very last detail, from his green eyes too his curly brown hair, it was all the same.

Travis looked down at him self 'I've gotten much bigger than I used to be but I'm still pretty much the same person' he thought as he saw all the changes that went on while he was fighting in the war.

"First things first, I've been fight in a war for the last 7 months and I haven't had a drink in over a year so I'm going to go raid the fridge for a drink of something very strong." Travis said as he began to walk into the kitchen.

"Wait a minute" Jessy yelled "um…. don't you want to…uh… say hi to everyone else, nobody but Zach and I have gotten hugs from you yet" she said nervously, obviously trying to keep him away from the kitchen.

"Jessy?" he said suspiciously "what are you hiding from me?"

She shifted her eyes back and forth in a suspicious manner, "nothing" she giggled slightly as she spoke.

"Ok then, I guess its fine for me to go get a drink then." Travis bolted toward the other room but Jessy tripped him before he could get there and bolted into the kitchen. Travis quickly got back up and ran after her.

Travis stopped dead in his tracks by the site that awaited him once he entered the kitchen. There was a blonde girl standing there in front of Jessy but Jessy had her hands over her eyes so she couldn't see him.

Travis could not see enough of the blonde girls face to tell if he knew her or not. "And, just who is this lovely young lady?" Travis said in a curious, yet intrigued, manner as he noticed her voluptuous figure.

"Travis?" the girl being blinded questioned.

"Yes?" he answered with hesitation as he tried to figure out where he had heard her voice before.

The blinded girl suddenly began struggling furiously to get out of Jessy's strong grasp. The blinded teenager began elbowing Jessy in an incredibly furious and brutal manner but she was tough enough to stand the pain, she was not going to let a little pain ruin her big surprise for Travis's party. Then the girl suddenly grabbed Jessy's arm and slammed her head backward into Jessy's nose. Jessy instantly let go of the smaller girls' eyes and grasped her own nose. The blonde girl instantly dropped, turned around, and threw her open palm into in the middle of Jessy's chest which slammed her against the counter.

'I know that move' Travis thought 'but it cant be, can it?' the other girl spun around, still kneeling, and shot forward, wrapping her arms around his neck in an abnormally firm hug.

"I've missed you so much" she tightened her grasp around him and pulled him even closer toward her, pressing him hard against her own body.

'I know that voice' Travis thought, still not believing his own thoughts. "A… Ariel?"

"Aw" William yelled sarcastically from the living room.

Travis pulled her away to get a good look at her face and his expression changed to a look of pure shock. His face began to turn pale, as if he had seen a ghost, and his mouth dropped open. He couldn't believe that she was actually here standing in his arms.

"Shocked or just surprised?" Zach asked with a sly tone and a cocky half smile krept across his face, as he leaned, arms crossed, against the rims of the doorway.

"But… but how?" Travis was still dum struck by the site of his first and only love.

"Does it matter?" Ariel gave him a comforting look as if to say that everything would be all right.

"Oh my god!" Travis said with tears in his eyes as he grabbed Ariel and wraped his arms around her in a crushingly firm hug that would have bruised a weaker woman.

Ariel was a girl that Travis met when he was only six years old. She was his only friend back when he was a much darker and cynical minded person than he could ever dream to be now. Travis had grown dark and cold from years of abuse from his stepfather and his drug-addicted mother. She gave him hope and turned him from a cold hearted demon to a regular child and they eventually became more than friends, but Travis moved away, never to return.

They found each other again, four years after he moved away from her, and they where closer than ever, especially since they where both in the beginning stages of adolescence and there hormones where at there peek levels. They lost touch again when they where both fourteen because not even a year earlier she moved to North Dakota. Travis decided to end the relationship for good because he thought he would never see her again, but here she was, in his arms once more, and he couldn't believe it.

"What the hell was that?" Jessy chocked out as she tried to catch her breath. "Oh my god I think I'm bleeding!" she said as she grasped her nose and felt all the blood pouring down her face. "What is your problem, you freaking psycho?"

"Hey, you should have let me go." Ariel said as she pulled away from Travis and looked back at Jessy "Wow I guess I hit you harder than I thought." she said with a devilish smile across her face.

"Oh, my god!" Zach yelled as he rushed to Jessy's aid, being the always helpful and loveble teddy bear that he was.

"What happened?" Brian yelled as he ran into the room. "Jesus christ!" he yelled as he noticed Jessy and the small puddle of blood beneath her. "Zach, what did you do!?"

"Me?" Zach said with shock and amazment. "Don't look at me; look at Travis's she-devil of a girlfriend!"

"Dang, you two are already going out?" Brian asked the couple who were still squeezing the life out of each other.

"No!"

"Yes!"

They both gave opposite answers in unison. They pulled away from each other slightly, but just enough to look one another in the eye while still keeping a strong hold on the other. They gave one another a strange look.

"Did you say yes?" asked Travis.

"Yes" she answered "did you say no?"

"Yes" he replied.

They both gave the same funny look to the other one and stared at each other for a moment in silence.

"Wow" Brian said, knowing full well that he had just brought up a bad topic for the two and possibly started an argument. "I'm going to go back into the other room now" he ran out of the room, trying to avoid getting in the middle of it and Jessy and Zach followed close behind.

"I thought that you wouldn't want to jump in so fast without talking about it first?" Travis explained.

"I thought that we could just forget about all that because it happened in the past?" Ariel rebudled.

They stared at each other quietly yet again, neither of them enjoying the awkward silence. Ariel finally decided to break the tension by saying something.

"Hey, how about we talk about this later, we have a party to get too." she said as she lay a comforting hand softly on his cheek.

"Deal" he quickly agreed. Travis grabbed Ariel's hand and they walked into the other room to join the rest of their friends.

"Ok, I'll talk to you later, bye." Zach said into his cell phone, he then closed the little phone and shoved it into his pocket.

"Who was that?" Travis asked Zach as he walked into the living room, keeping a firm grip on Ariel's hand.

"His new girlfriend" Jackie teased giggling goofily.

"Hey she's not technically my girlfriend yet, we are just talking for now." Zach explained.

"Oh, shut-up Zach, you know that the first time she actually comes over you two are going to end up making out." William joked.

"Pretty much, but she doesn't know that yet." he laughed.

"Wait where did this new girl come from, when I left for Iraq you were still dating Rachael." Travis asked. A lot of things had apparently changed since he left for the war, considering Brian and Jessy were going out when he left, and Joey had a girlfriend named Crystal. Now, he hasn't seen Jessy or Brian even look at each other since he got back and Joey's phone wasn't always vibrating from Crystal's constant texting. "Speaking of changes… what the hell happened to you two" he said looking back and forth at Jessy and Brian "and Joey, I haven't heard your cell phone go off once since I've been here. Did you and Crystal break up?" with that sentence alone all the energy was sucked out of the room.

Travis didn't know what had happened while he was away but he did remember that Jessy and Brian were constantly fighting and Crystal was far too easily throne off the handle, and it had always annoyed Joey, but he did not think that they would actually break up.

The whole room sat there in an awkward silence for a moment before Zach decided to break it, as always.

"Hey, I'm going to go start getting the snacks and drinks ready." he said as he rose from his seat and made a 'follow me' gesture with his head. "Could you come help me, Travis?"

Travis quickly got the hint. "uh, sure." he let go of Ariel's hand and followed his friend back into the kitchen. He watched Zach pull some bottles of all kinds of different alcoholic drinks. He poured one of them into a glass and handed it to Travis.

Travis took a sip and his face clenched as the obvious strength of the alcohol seeped down into his stomach. "so, what's up?"

Zach poured a glass for himself as he spoke. "Well, Travis, a lot of things have changed while you were away defending my right to consume this, very potent, glass of whiskey." he took a sip, making the same face as his small friend as the drink got to him as well. "first of all," he began as he leaned against the counter. "If you would have gotten my letter then you would know that Jessy and Brian broke up and so did Crystal and Joey. You would also know that kristen has moved back to town, thats who i was on the phone with earlier."

"Hey, it isn't my fault, I cant help it if the mailing system in Iraq sucks." Travis took another sip of his drink and leaned against the counter next to Zach. "So, what happened."

"Long story short, she cheated." Zach answered with a sigh.

"Who cheated, crystal?"

"Nope, Jessy."

"Really? Wow, I knew her and Brian fought a lot but I never thought it would come to that." Travis took another sip of his drink. "Who was it with?"

"Joey."

"What?"

"Yep."

"Joey?"

"uh-huh."

"Really?"

"I know, I know, it surprised the hell out of me too."

"Wow, things really have changed since I left." Travis downed the last of his drink "So, you and Kristen, huh, when did that happen?"

"Well, I saw her online one day and we started talking, one thing led to another and now she is coming over next weekend to hang out and go to the movies." Zach finished his drink as well and began grabbing the bottles and some shot glasses."

"That's cool, hope it works out for you." Travis began to grab the ones Zach couldn't quite get. He looked up at Zach while he was holding the bottles and glasses and gave his famous cocky half smile. "lets party."

They walked back into the living room where William and Brian were arm wrestling on the table. "Ok guy's, enough of the display of male dominance. Lets drink." Zach laughed at his competitive freinds.

William slammed Brian's hand on the table and cried out in victory. "ha ha! Got you again! I am still the king, baby, yah!"

"Dam!" Brian yelled out in anger. He quickly moved out of the way and back to his seat as Zach and Travis set the drinks, along with the glasses, down on the table.

"So, what else happened while I was gone?"

"Well, me and Nichole broke up" Jackie's goofy smile was even apparent when he was telling bad news.

"Really, how did that happen?" Travis pried as he took a seat on the recliner on the other side of the door and Ariel followed by sitting on his lap.

Jackie shrugged his shoulder and his smile faded "she said that she needed a break for a while, to figure out her priorities, so we broke up."

"That sucks." Travis spoke in a reflective manner, as if he had heard it before.

"Nothing has changed for me." Guy threw in.

"Yep me neither, well, except that I told Josh to fuck off and that I wasn't going to talk to him any more." Josh was Nikki's ex-boyfriend. Her and Josh have had a long history together. They had been going out, on and off, for the last five years but they both had a lot of issues that got in the way.

Travis was awestruck by this sudden anouncment because he had thought that they would never get tired of each other's crap. "Really and why is that?"

"Well he was being a dick and I got tired of it." Nikki explained.

"Wow, almost everything changed after I left." Travis looked around again at all his friends and realized that William hadn't said anything to him since he had gotten there. "What about you, William, anything happen to you while I was gone?"

"Nope, nothing worth talking about." William never really went through a lot of changes. Ever since his dad died, he hadn't changed much. He has been the same ever since he and Travis had first met.

"That doesn't surprize me." Travis suddenly remembered the girl who was leening against his chest. "Wait a minute....how in the hell did you get down here?" Travis asked as he looked at the beautiful girl that was now giving him the same devilish smile as before.

"Well I called your house during the summer and your brother told me where you were. So, I called Zach to find out what in the hell possessed you to go and join the Army, but he explained your reasoning. Then, we decided that it would be fun to surprise you" Ariel glanced over at Zach and he continued her story.

"Well that's where our other surprise comes in" Zach looked around at everyone in the room because no one but Ariel and Jessy knew about this surprise yet. "Well, my uncle who lives in Scotland died recently, and since he had no children, he left everything to me, including his twelve story modernized castle and his **three hundred million dollar fortune**." Everyone in the room was struck speechless. Zach paused for a second to let it all sink in before continuing. "So I used some of that money to get her a plane ticket down here and she just told her mom that she was going with one of her friends on a camping trip for two weeks."

"Yah, and she was so caught up in the divorce with my step-dad that she didn't even ask questions." Ariel added.

Everyone looked around at each other. All of them were struck speechless. Travis was struck by the fact that Ariel was going to be there for two weeks, Zach was struck by the fact that he had just caused every jaw in the room to almost hit the ground, but everyone else was struck by the words "three hundred million dollars" and "twelve story modernized castle".

Zack was the first to break the silence. "Well aren't any of you going to congratulate me?"

Guy followed soon after "Wow….I did not see that one coming."

"Wow" Brian exclaimed "three hundred million dollars…..you're going to let me come live with you right?" Brian asked with a goofy smile.

"Yah, Zach" William agreed "you've got a castle and three hundred million dollars so I'm definitely not living in this shit hole of a town anymore"

"Ok, fine. As long as you guys don't reck my castle, its fine by me" Zach answered.

"I don't know Scotland is pretty far" Travis contradicted.

"Oh shut-up" Jessy interrupted with a smile on her face and a small giggle trying to escape her mouth "you just don't want to be that far away from your girly."

"What the hell is a girly?" Ariel raised an eyebrow and looked over at Jessy.

"It's a Zach word that she jacked" Travis and Zach both said simultaneously.

"Its Zach's word for any girl who happens to like any guy in our group who's single." Travis explained.

"Who in the hell ever said you were single." Ariel violently pressed her lips against Travis's. His eyes widened as this action caught him completely off guard, but he quickly accepted this, closed his eyes, and began returning the kiss.

"Wow, I guess Travis wasn't lieing when he said that she was demanding with what she wanted." Zach said with a chuckle.

Ariel broke the conection her and Travis's lips had made and he was left speechless for a moment as he fully came to grips what had just happened. "Oh my god!" he let out with amazment in his voice. "That…..was…….awesome!!" he added with a look of pure pleasure on his face as he was smiling from ear to ear. It had been a while since Travis had even kissed a woman so it caught him entirely off guard.

"Was there ever any doubt?" Ariel asked in a cocky manner.

The room sat quit for a few moments as all the events that had just took place sunk in. a lot had changed since Travis had left for the war, he was reunited with the love of his life, plus Zach's new inheritance had shocked everyone. So, the room sat quit as everyone took a moment to bask in the glow of the good fortune, even Jessy and Brian were looking at each other in a new light, as if all could be forgiven.

"How could this get any better?" Travis questioned as he looked deeply into Ariel's eyes. Travis turned his attention to Zach who was looking at them both with a warm smile across his face "Zach, thank you for bringing her back into my life." he said with a content smile on his face.

"No problem Travis, but remember you owe me for this one." Zach said with a gleam of accomplishment in his eyes.

Suddenly, the door burst open, breaking the doorknob and ripping the door from its hinges.

In the doors place, was a small red ball of light floating in mid-air.

Everyone's attention turned to the red ball. Most were looking at it with a sense of inquisitiveness while others looked at it with a sense of fear, but all were looking at it with a sense of wonder.

Ariel sat all the way up and scooted forward to get a better look at the ball. "What the hell is…?" Ariel was suddenly interrupted by the ball shooting red beams of light at everyone in the room.

Everyone felt an intense pain flowing throughout their entire body as each individual red beam of light poured over them.

Travis and Brian were both already used to intense pain, so they weren't as affected as the others, but despite their high tolerence to pain, from the abuse they had to indure as children, even they were riving in agony.

Travis looked around the room at all his friends suffering and hated it. Especially once he looked down and saw the woman he loved on the ground searing in pain. He knew he had to do something, so he pulled himself up from the recliner and slowly moved toward the open door way in which the red ord floated inauspiciously. As soon as Travis got to the door, he began clutching the rims of it in order to keep himself in place as all the orbs light was suddenly focused on him.

With this act, the whole room, excluding Travis, was suddenly releaved from all their own pain and anguish enough to regain a grip on their surroundings.

"What the hell was that?" Guy yelled, still clutching his pounding chest.

"I…..have……no……..idea" Brian said in-between gasps of air.

"Ahhhhhh!!" Ariel let out a high-pitch scream as she looked upon Travis as his body withstood all the punishment the orb was dealing out through the lights.

Travis's eyes began to glow red, his canine teeth grew and sharpened to fine points, and razor sharp claws bagan to protrude from his finger tips and into the rims of the door way.

"Oh my god!" Zach exclaimed as he instantly jumped from his position on the couch and wrapped his arms around Travis's torso. William quickly did the same and they both began pulling with emense strength on Travis's body in order to pry him off the door and away from the red orb.

"AHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Travis let out a blood-curdling scream that slowly turned into a dark and daunting roar. Red light began shooting out of his eyes and mouth and William and Zach where shot backwards by red lighting that surged throughout their entire bodies like poison.

"**RAAAAAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!**" Travis let out another terrifying roar that sent shivers down all of their spines. "**HELP ME!!!**" he bellowed into the air with a voice that sounded as if he was possessed by a demon. He suddenly shot backwards, with the same red lighting surrounding him, and slammed hard into the wall opposite of the doorway, breaking a few pictures hanging on the now cracked dry wall.

Travis's body fell limp to the floor, but before anyone could rush to his aid, the red orb began consuming all the inhabitants of William's living room with the searing red light once more.

Brian looked over at Jessy and couldn't bare the site of her on the floor, riving in agony. He instinctively leapt toward her and wrapped his long, but strong, arms around her, shielding her completely from the red light, but taking the punishment from both of their individual beams combined.

Jessy felt relief flow over her entire body and strange warmth surrounded her. She suddeny realized what had caused the releif and the warmth. She looked up at her savior, his face was twisted in anguish, but the warm embrace off his arms made her feel more comfortable and safe than she had felt in a very long time.

The red orb finally stopped beaming its light on everyone as it imploded in on itself, leaving no trace of it's presence in the doorway that it had just inhabited.

Brian collapsed to the floor and his breathing became very shallow.

"Brian!" Jessy screamed in concern.

"What?" Brian coughed out in a dry and raspy voice as he slowly sat up.

"Oh my god!" she wrapped her arms around him, knocking him back to the ground. "Thank god you're alright."

"Where is Travis?" Ariel began looking back and fourth frantically searching the room for him.

"Oh no." Nikki covered her mouth and tears began welling up in her eyes when she noticed Travis's pale form lay motionless on the ground.

"Someone call 911!" Zach rushed over to Travis and felt his pulse. "NOW!!!" he demanded violently.

William took out his cell phone and dialed the number as Zach pounded on Travis's chest and breathing into his mouth in an attempt to resuscitate his lifeless friend. The rest of the room could only watch as Zach tried frantically for twenty minutes to resuscitate the motionless body of his best friend.

***

"NOOOOOO!!!!" Ariel screamed with large tears running down her cheeks as she tried to escape Zach's strong arms. She finally escaped Zach's grip and ran to Travis's lifeless body and collapsed on his still, lifeless, chest. She began sobbing loudly on his, already soaked t-shirt. The members of the ambulance crew pulled her off his body and dragged her back to Zach who held her deep in his arms. "NOOOOO!!!!" she screamed again as she watched the love of her life being zipped up in a large black bag. She tried to scream once more but the reality of it all hit her with far too much force and she didn't have the strength, or the breath, for another scream. She couldn't stand to watch it any longer and she dug her face into Zach's chest, muffling her loud sobs.

"Its going to be alright, just calm down Ariel" Zach lied while trying in vain to hold back his tears and loud sobs, as he held Ariel's head in his chest "please stop." he cried softly.

Nikki was sobbing uncontrollably into William's muscular shoulder. Jessy was digging her face deeply into Brains chest as her tears poured from her blood shot eyes. Everyone was standing on Williams lawn, watching the tragedy take place before them, tears pouring down their faces. Their tears mixed with the pouring rain as the ambulance turned of its sirens and faded away into the dark, rainy, night.


	2. Tearing At the Seems

Zach, Brian, and Jessy were all sitting at Zach's house, helping him pack so he could move in to his new home in Scotland.

There was an uncomfortable silence between the three and the air was as thick as sheet metal. Zach hadn't even seen the other two since the accident.

It had been three months since the incident at Williams' house and, although they had tried to move on, no one had forgotten. Brian and Jessy had begun dateing again and Zach had started dating and they were moving faster than a speeding bullet because Zach was trying to get over the loss of his best friend with his new and exiting relationship.

Jessy was thinking hard to find something to say that would break the uncomfortable silence and she finally thought of a descent question to ask that might possibly start a conversation. "So… um… who all is going to come live with you in your new house?"

"Well, William is the only one who has givin me a definite yes, everyone else has givin me really if-e answers" Zach answered, glad that the silence had finally been broken.

"Well, I've got school to go to, and Brian wants to stay here with me until I graduate, what's everyone elses excuse?"

"Let me think. Well, Guy and Jackie don't know yet because they aren't sure if the other two they're living with can pay the bills without them, Ariel isn't old enough to move out of her moms house, plus I don't think she has quite accepted what happened at Williams house yet and Nikki wants to stay here with her new boyfriend."

"What about Joey?" Jessy asked without thinking.

"What the hell do you want Joey there for, so you can fuck him again!?" Brian snapped bitterly at Jessy.

Tears began to well up in Jessy's eyes as the full affect of what Brian had just said sank in. "Why cant you just let that go?" her voice was filled with guilt and sadness as tears began slowly rolling down her cheeks. Brian did not reply. Jessy suddenly felt her sadness replaced with anger as she said this next sentence "Stop acting so stubborn and let the past go, I already said I was sorry for that a thousand times. I feel horrible enough without you reminding me constantly. I swear your acting just like your dad!"

Zach already knew Jessy had hit a very touchy nerve with Brian and he was about to start raising hell.

Brian stood up and stared down at Jessy glaring at her, more hurt than he was angered "How dare you compare me to that bastard, I am nothing like him and I never will be!" Brian screamed.

"How dare you bring up shit that's in the past" Jessy stood up, getting as close to his face as she possibly could, being a whole foot shorter than him.

"I don't care what I bring up, there's no reason why you need to compare me to him! What if I compared you to your mother, huh, what you would you do then?" Brian knew he should just stop right there but he was too angry to care how much he hurt her. "What If I said you were a crack-whore just like her? You cheated on me, you lied about being a virgin when we started dating again, you're always flirting with every guy you meet and you're just like her!"

Tears began pouring down her cheeks. "Well, you're just like your asshole father! You're jealous, your sarcastic, your rude, you have no fucking manners what so ever and your nothing but a dick!" she screamed, her voice tainted with much rage and sadness.

"That's it!" Brian screamed as he stormed out of the room.

"What the hell Jessy? Why did you bring up his dad? You know how much that pisses him off." Zach yelled in surprise at Jessy's statement.

"I just don't care anymore." she whiped a few tears from her face and eyes.

"Jessy you know that's not true. You have loved him ever since you saw him in the fourth grade" he put a comforting arm around his small friend. "Your not going to give up now, are you?" Zach placed his finger on her chin and gently led her face upwards so he could look her in the eyes. "The Jessy I know is far to stuborn to ever give up that easy on something you have worked so hard to achieve."

She sniffed and wiped the water from her glazed eyes "Thanks Zach."

"Hey this is what I'm here for, you." he opened a helping hand toward Jessy as he spoke "Now come on, lets go catch him before he gets away" Jessy took his hand and they headed out the door, into the pouring rain and hopped into the car.

They drove around for a few minutes then Jessy started to dought if they would ever find him.

"Where could he possibly be?" she asked looking around anxiously, in hopes of catching a glimps of his long, skinny, form.

"I think I know exactly where he is." Zach said as he veered left toward the large church that he and all his friends used to attend.

* * *

Brian stared up through the heavy rain at the large building that stood before him. "House of god, huh?" he thought aloud. "Well here I am god, right here at your door step!" he screamed at the church where he had spent so many hours of worshiping the lord and having fun with his friends. "The question is, where the hell are you!?" he yelled with even more intensity "where were you when I was a child being beaten by my father!?" a strange golden glow began eminating from his rain drenched body. "Where were you when I walked the streets alone, crying out for anyone to come and save me, and where were you when my best friend died, huh, **where were you then god, where was my miracle, where was my shining beacon of light!?!**" he screamed as he looked at the building from left to right in anger and frustration. "ANSWER ME!!!!!" his golden aura grew larger and flared upward as he screamed again at the empty building.

Lightning cracked and thunder boomed across the sky as Brian slammed his fist into the ground, causing a large crack in the pavement. His aura faded back into nothing as tears began to mix with the heavy raindrops rolling down his face. Brian whispered as his voice cracked in a soft tone. "Where are you now?"

Brian looked up as he heard a car pull up behind him and could see lights casting a large shadow of him on the wall. He turned his head around to find Jessy and Zach stepping out of the car and into the pouring rain.

"Brian, thank god I found you." she yelled as she ran toward her lover.

"Stay away from me!" Brian barked in a harsh and threatening manner.

Jessy was suddenly scared stiff from Brains rage and harness of tone. "Baby I… I'm sorry I…"

"Save it! I don't need you or anyone else, besides if I'm so much like my father than why would you even want to get near me!"

"Brian, I didn't mean it I…" she began.

"Bullshit! If you didn't mean it you wouldn't have said it." the golden aura suddenly shot out of his body, flaring up wildly. "I don't need you or anyone else!" he turned his back to Jessy and look toward the pitch-black sky.

"NO!!" Brains' attention was turned toward Zach's sudden outburst and his aura disappeared once again "I won't let you run away from your problems anymore! Its time you turned and faced them like a man!" a few sparks of electricity pulsated from his body as he spoke. "I will not let you walk away from the best thing that's happened to you in a long time!" he unclenched his fists and softened his tone. "You've got a friend that will always stand at your side and a girl that loves you and would do anything to make you happy and you wont run away from that, not tonight."

"Watch me" Brian said bitterly and looked back toward the sky. Brian's body lifted from the ground slightly as the golden aura surrounded his body again.

Brian suddenly shot upward into the sky, then stoped in midair, turned around and shot forward, toward the horizon.

Jessy fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.

Zach looked up at Brian then glanced down at Jessy and he was filled with a horrible rage. As the rage built inside of him, large sparks of electricity began flaring out of his body. "You will not run away anymore." he whispered under his breath as he held out his open palm towards the ground and firmly grasped his wrist with the other hand.

Electricity began swirling around his arm and into the palm of his hand creating a ball of pure electronic energy. "You think you're the only one with powers Brian!?!" Zach screamed out at him as the ball of lighting grew larger and more powerfull as electricity from the air, and Zach's body, were drawn into it. "Well think again!!!" he roared as he flung his arm upward in Brian's direction, forceing the ball into a bolt of lightnig that shot straight at him.

Brian looked back just in time to see the bolt of lightning make contact with his back and send an extreme jolt of pain through his body. He lost his concentration and he fell to the cold hard ground below landing roughly and sliding forward.

For a moment, as Brian's body lay motionless, Zach felt worried, but his wory quickly changed back to anger when he saw Brian stirring from the small crator he had left.

"You wanna play like that, huh." he pulled himself to his feet and his aura returned. "Fine then, lets play!" with that, he shot forward, flying rapidly, straight at Zach.

Brian stoped not even a foot in front of him and landed a hard hit straight to his face, flinging Zach's head backwards. Brian took this opurtunitie to charge a small amount of positive energy from the air in both his arms, increasing the strength and speed in them greatly.

Then, before Zach could even turn his head back toward him, Brian began landing a deadly series of hits on him, letting his fist strike wherever they flew. He finished the last bit of energy he had charged with one powerfull blow with his left arm into Zach's stomach and while Zach was kneeled over in pain he landed the last powerfull hit with his right arm straight to Zach's face, twisting his whole uper body in that direction.

Before Brian could charge energy again, Zach created a quick ball of lightning in his hand then closed his fist, super charging his whole arm with raw power. Zach then slung his arm, carrying all his body weight with it, and landed a powerefull hit straight to his face, sending him flying backwards. Brian was stopped by slamming hard into the brick wall of the church.

Brian recovered just in time to see Zach running straight at him, his right arm reared back, swirling with white lightning. He ducked just in time to avoid the attack, sending Zach's whole arm straight through the church wall. Brian quickly rolled behind him and took the opertunitie of Zach being stuck in the wall to charge his leg with enough energy to take down an elephant.

Brian lifted his energy-filled leg and kicked him hard in the back, sending him straight through the wall and onto the ground, creating a thick cloud of smoke. Brian created a small ball of energy in his hands and threw it into the dark cloud, generating a small explosion. He then walked into the smoke in search of Zach's remains.

When the smoke cleared enough for Brian to see the ground he saw no trace of any one and he looked up just in time for Zach to land a good hard hit into his face, flinging him across the room and into the wall. He did not even have the cance to look up before Zach was on him again. He grabed Brian by his already tattered and torn shirt and slamed him into another wall then punched him hard straight through it. Brian rolled into the hall and hit his back hard against the other wall. Zach, yet again, punched him straight through it and into the main sanctuary. Brian was stopped by ramming his back into a pew.

Before Brian could even slightly recover from the last hit, Zach grabbed him by the shirt again and flung him up into the baptism pool. Zach begun charging electricity in his arms yet again as Brian attempted to recover from the series of blows he just endured.

Brian was able to pull himself back up to his feet. He looked down at his drenched body and clothes. A sudden fear struck him when he looked down at Zach, whose body was again swirling with white lighting. Brian attempted to start flying but Zach began shocking him with two powerful bolts of electricity before he could get off the ground, sending an incredibly intense agony throughout his entire body.

The lighting that Zach had charged had faded but his rage hadn't. Zach leapt over Brian landing directly behind him. He turned him around and punched him hard in the face shooting his body hard back into the pews, breaking several straight in half. Zach hoped down and began walking slowly toward Brian again.

Brian snapped himself out of the daze and saw Zach walking towards him. He quickly charged his arm full off energy and grabbed the half of the pew his arm was resting on and slung it at Zach, shattering it into pieces on his shoulder.

Zach looked back at him, after recovering from the sudden blow to the side, to see Brian flying straight at him. Brian caught him by the stomach and continued flying, breaking through every wall until they where again outside in front of the church where Jessy could still be found on the ground crying.

Brian then began flying straight upward with intent to end it quickly by droping him from over a thousand feet in the air. Zach suddenly recovered and realized what was happening and grabbed Brian's sides sending as much electricity surging through his body as he could. Brian just withstood the pain and continued flying upward until he could take it no longer. He lost consciousness about 500 feet in the air and both Brian and Zach began plumiting to the ground.

Zach, almost completely drained of energy, sucome to the high G's caused by falling so fast and lost consciousness.

Jessy watched in horror as they both finally hit the ground, both of them creating there own separate holes in the pavement from the force of their impact. For a moment, she thought she had lost them both but she was proven wrong when she saw something moving in both the craters.

Before she even had time to celebrate the miricale that they had survived the fall, she saw Brian's golden aura rising from his crater and lightning swirling in the form of a giant half circle in Zach's crater.

"AAAAAGH!!!!" Brian screamed as he struggled to charge as much energy as he could into a large golden orb in the palm of his hand.

"RRRRRR!!!!" Zach was holding his hand, open-palmed, above his head creating a center for all the lighting. He was drawing electricity from his surroundings into the half circle shape spiraling around his body.

The orb of lightining surrounding Zach was suddenly sucked into a small ball of lighting in his hand, he then closed his fist, putting all the lightning into his arm, and began sprinting straight toward Brian with his arm at his side ready to sling it upward and end this once and for all.

Brian focused the large energy ball into the size of a marble and closed his fist, in order to contain it all in his already bruised and worn out arm, and began sprinting straight at Zach, his arm reared back ready to put all his weight into one final blow.

As soon as they where in stricking range of each other they both flung their arms at one another but before any contact was made Jessy jumped between them surrounded by an orb of constantly swirling air stopping both of their attacks from making any contact what-so-ever with anything but the wind. When their fists made contact with the orb surrounding Jessy it instantly forced their hands into the direction the air was circling. Brian's fist was sent upward while Zach's was sent down, forcing them both off balance.

Before Zach and Brian even realized what had just happened Jessy used an incredibly powerful gust of wind out of each hand to shoot them both backwards, causing them to fall flat on their backs and loose all the energy and momentum they had built up into their arms.

"That's enough!" Jessy screamed, looking back and forth between the two, tears still rolling down her face mixing with the down-pour.

Zach and Brian both drug themselves to their feet and stared daggers at one another. There was an uncomfortable silence for a moment and you could cut the tension with a knife between the three.

Brian suddenly turned his back and his aura reappeared. He looked over his shoulder straight at Zach as he lifted off the ground.

Zach began to advance on him but something stoped him. He looked down at what was stoping him and saw Jessy's hand on his chest.

"Just let him go." she said with her eyes beginning to glaze once more. Zach backed off slightly and allowed Brian to make his escape.

Brian took one last glance down at Jessy before he turned his attention to the sky. He took off like a bullet into the air and, within minutes, he had disappeared into the horizon.

Even with Brian far from sight they both continued to stare up at the sky for a while, both of them thinking the same thing, but only Jessy dared to speak it "will we ever see him again?"

"I don't know, Jessy" Zach said as he steped into his car and Jessy followed close behind "I just don't know." The thunder roared as they drove off into the night, both of them knowing that nothing would ever be the same again.


	3. The Reunion

"When is everyone going to get here?" William asked impatiently.

"Last time I talked to them all, they were already in the country and Jessy called and said that she was only about ten minutes away so she should be here any minute now." Zach stated, looking over at the door and shaking his leg, getting slightly impatient himself.

"Wow." William said as he lit another cigarette in his mouth. "Can you believe it's been a little over five years since we last saw them?"

"Ya it's hard to believe, considering how inseparable we used to be." Zach agreed.

Both their attention turned to the large double doors of the castle as two loud knocks erupted from them.

"That's gotta be Jessy." Zach lept from his chair and hurried to the doors. He opened them both to reveil the small girl that he had not seen in so long.

"Jessy!" he yelled excitedly and lifted the small woman in a huge bear hug.

"Zach!" she returned his excitement and his hug, and wrapped her arms around his neck, dropping all of her bags to the floor.

"I missed you so much." Zach finished hugging her and gently placed her back on the ground.

"I missed you too." she looked beyond Zach and saw William leaning back in a large recliner. "What, are you to good to give me a hug now William?"

"Yes" William said jokingly.

"William you'd better get up and give me a hug before I come over there and kick your little ass"

"Little, ha, I don't know who's ass you're talking about but it sure aint mine."

"You're such a hick William."

"And dam proud of it too." he said in a thick southern accent, making fun of himself a little.

"Get over here" she said holding her arms wide open.

"Uh, ok" William suddenly jumped out of his seat and lifted Jessy in a huge bear hug almost suffocating her and crushing her rib cage.

"William…. You're crushing me," she gasped between breaths.

"Put her down William. She just got here, don't kill her yet, wait tell later" Zach advised with a laugh as he carried Jessy's bags toward one of the rooms surrounding the living room.

"Ok, just remind me later, ok Zach." William let her down gently and went back to his chair.

Jessy looked around at the huge castle room she was in. there was a lot of medieval style weapons scattered across the walls and a few suits of armor for decoration, but one large hammer in a glass case especially caught her eye. "Why is this one in a glass case?" she asked as she pointing to the large war hammer across the room from her. "What makes it so special?"

"Oh, that" Zach answered as he set her stuff down just inside the door of one of the rooms. "That was my uncle's proudest possession," he explained as he walked over to it, Jessy following closely behind. "Supposedly, it was stolen from a demon back in the ancient times and it's made out of demonic metal, but it's probably just some old wise tale."

"That's cool," she said sarcastically. "So where is Kristen?" she scanned the room in vain.

"I sent her back to the states to see her parents so that she wouldn't be here for the reunion."

"Why can't she be here for the reunion? Wait, speaking of the reunion, where is everybody?"

"I will answer both those questions when the last of us get here," answered Zach as he sat back down in his chair.

"Who all did you invite to this reunion?" she asked suspiciously.

"You'll see when the last one of us gets here," he said with a smile across his face.

"Wait, please tell me you didn't invite…." an extremely loud knocking, coming from the doors, cut her off.

"That must be him now" Zach got up and rushed over to the door.

As soon as he opened the doors, he was wrapped in a crushing bear hug that took even his breath from his lungs. "Good to see you to Brian." he gasped.

"Wow it's been a long time." Brian said as he released Zach from his bear hug and picked his bag back up. "So who's all here?" he asked, trying to look over Zach's head.

"Well look around." Zach stepped aside to allow Brian to gaze upon the large castle room, and all who inhabit it.

Brian began scanning the room and stopped on William. He had grown much larger since he had last seen him, even with his baggy shirt, his huge muscles were extremely apparent and his hair was cut into a military fashion. His attention turned suddenly toward the small woman standing in the middle of the room.

He could not believe it, the girl he was in love with so long ago, which he had not even spoken to since the incident at the church on that rainy night. Not much had changed about her, her hair was now back to its original light brown color with a few blonde streaks scattered within it, she was a little taller and she looked a lot more mature in the face but, besides all that, she was still the same as she used to be.

"Hey…, Jessy, Uh… What's going on with you." he tried to start a conversation in an attempt to break the tension between them.

"Fine, you?" she asked trying to avoid making eye contact. She gave him a quick look-over and she instantly noticed that he was no longer the scrawny punk that she once knew. He had at least doubled in muscle mass and definition and his hair was back to its original darkish brown but he still wore the same tight, preppie, cloths. 'Come to think of it,' she thought as she looked back toward Zach, 'he has gotten bigger too'. She looked Zach up and down as he walked out of the room. She noticed that his hair was no longer puffy and curled, it looked as if he had straightened it, but it was a lot thicker than it was when it used to be straightened, plus it was much longer and he had it pulled back into a ponytail. Not to mention he was wearing a tight black tank top that showed off his new muscular physique.

"Well, I…." Brian started

"Hey, we can get caught up later." both Jessy and Brian were happy that Zach had interjected and made the situation a little more bearable. "We need to get down to the business of why I gathered you guys here today," Zach suggested as he walked back into the room with four wine glasses and a newly opened bottle of red wine.

"Is this all that's going to be here?" Brian looked around at all the empty chairs in the huge room.

"Well, actually, that's why I've called you guys here today" Zach began as he poured wine into each glass and distributed them. "you see I've kept up with everyone that was there that night when Travis died and the reason I've called you guys here is because one by one they have begun disappearing." he looked around the room and paused for effect. "First it was Joey, I called him one day and his girlfriend said that she hadn't seen him in about 2 months. Then came Jackie and Guy, I called there house and Michael and Katie said that they went to a video game convention and that it had been attacked by two unidentified individuals and there was only a few survivors. Jackie and Guy's bodies hadn't been found at all among the wreckage. Last but not least, there is Nikki. I called their house and the line was no longer in service so I called around and her mom said that her house had caught fire but her body was never found. But, the weird part about Nikki's situation is that her body wasn't found and when her boyfriend's body was found they found out during the autopsy that he didn't die of the burns, he died of drowning."

The room was silent for a moment before Zach continued. "That's the reason I gathered you all here today. We are the only ones who aren't missing or dead."

"Wait, what about Ariel, what happened to her?" Jessy interrupted.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about her, thanks for reminding me. No, she is just fine. The only reason she is not here right now is because she is fighting in a martial arts tournament and if she leaves now she will forfeit. So she won't be joining us for another few months. I told her that it wasn't safe to be alone any longer but she refused to forfeit and back down from a fight, so she will just have to risk it alone if…"

"Well, that's just unfair" Zach was interrupted again, but this time by Brian "don't you think she has a slight advantage on her opponents?"

"Well not really." Jessy answered "her power isn't exactly as potent as mine, your's, or Zach's."

"Well what is it then?" Brian pried.

"She says that she can manipulate her own bones. I haven't seen it in action, but it doesn't seem to be a very useful power." she explained.

"Well I have, and she defiantly can put it to good use." Zach argued.

"Bet she can't beat me." William said in his usual cocky manner

"Shut up William, with your power its not even fair" Zach joked.

Zach cleared his throat and suddenly looked very serious again. "Now back to the matter at hand, there is something going on here, something bad. I knew all of their powers and none of them would have been easy to get rid of in any way, especially kidnapping. I'm thinking there is a great force at work, though I'm not sure what." he began pacing back in forth in the middle of the room making hand gestures as he spoke. "That is the ultimate reason I've called for this gathering. I am hoping that, what ever this thing is, that it will not attack us while we are in a large group like this. Even if it does, it will be harder for it to take us down if we are all together. If it happens to be something supernatural and we all begin to dissapear than at least we will be able to see it in action and we may be able to put an end to it, or at least figure out whats happening to all of us."

"But, what if it's all just a coincidence that they all just happen to be disappearing?" Brian contradicted.

"I highly doubt that Brian." Jessy argued.

"I agree with Jessy, the odds of all of the nine that were there during that night are all disappearing one at a time, and all around the same time, is very slim." Zach explained

"Hey I was just throwing it out there." he threw his hands in the air, as if to block their arguments, as he defended himself.

"So what do we do if nothing happens?" Jessy asked

"I thought of that as well." Zach stated excitedly as if he was waiting for someone to ask that question. "We are going to wait until Ariel gets finished with her tournament then wait it out for another month or so and if nothing happens' then we will right it off as a coincidence. But in that case we must all keep very close eyes on each other by making sure that we stay in touch, that way, if any of us go missing than someone can alert the others and we can maybe prevent them from disappearing forever." he explained

"Hey I don't have that kind of time, I start college soon and I can't keep tabs on all of you guys while I'm trying to pass all my classes." Jessy argued.

"Ya, I actually agree with her." she was surprised by Brian's sudden agreement with her. "I've got some things going on back home that acquires a lot of attention and I'm not going to have a lot of time on my hands"

"Ok, Jessy you can at least call us every other day to stay safe and to let us know your all right, and Brian what could you possibly have going on that keeps you so busy that you can't call one of us every so often." Zach argued

"I'm having a kid" every ones, especially Jessy's, eyes widened greatly and their mouths dropped open in sheer shock and aw at Brian's big news.

The room sat silent for a moment as the bulk of Brian's big news sunk in.

He looked around the room at all the blank faces. "Well isn't anyone going to congratulate me?"

All the room, excluding Jessy was snapped out of their sudden trance.

"Oh…. oh my god, Brian, when did this happen and who's the lucky girl, or did you guys not plan on this." Zach managed to spit out.

"About six months ago and, with Crystal." Jessy was suddenly riped out of her trance at the mention of that name. Crystal and Brian were going out long before Jessy and him ever even met and Crystal came between them a few times.

"What!?!" Zach screamed in surprise. "Where the hell did she come from all of a sudden?"

"Well I went back into our old town to see a few old faces and I bumped into her. We started talking and one thing led to another and, long story short, we had a one-night stand. She called me a few weeks later and told me she was pregnant. At first I was scared, but I thought about it for a while and I decided I liked the idea of being a dad. Besides, we all know I could use some direction and stability in my life. Oh and guess what, me and Crystal started talking and we've decided to give our old relationship another shot, mostly for the sake of the kid though."

"Wow, I didn't see that coming." William laughed.

The room entered in another awkward silence as everyone in the room was trying to find something to say, having been dumbstruck by the sudden news.

Jessy decided to be the one who broke the silence this time. "So how long can you stay before you have to go back to her." she asked.

He was surprised that she was the one that would ask that, considering he thought she hated him. "Uh, well I can probably stay for a few weeks as long as I call her and make sure it's alright."

"Wow, your actually asking her permission for something. With me you were the one who always made the decisions, whether I liked them are not." she said bitterly

"Hey, that's…." Brian began.

"Hey, hey, calm down you two. There is no reason for us to bring up old bullshit. This is supposed to be a time put all that in the past because that's what it is, the past, and that's were it should stay." Zach was standing in between them as if to hold them back. He was looking square at Brian with a serious look on his face, as if to tell him to calm down. Brian sat down slowly keeping his eyes on Jessy, half expecting her to attack him or at least say something else, but she just sat there with a look of regret in her eyes.

The room was again quite for a moment when suddenly William let out a slight chuckle as he looked at his phone. "Hey guys guess what." Everyone in the room looked up at William. "Do you realize that its been five years today since that last party at my house." he suddenly looked very serious and a little sad. "I'll never forget that crazy midget bastard."

"Amen to that, brother." Brian agreed.

Memories of their old friend began racing through their minds and Brian decided to share one "Do you guy's remember when he got drunk that one time and William's mom sprayed him down with a water hose. It was so funny watching him run from the water." everyone in the room chuckled a little.

"Does anyone remember when he used get so mad at us for making fun of his height that he would turn red?" William asked. Everyone else nodded a little and smiled slightly.

"Hey, does anyone remember when he used to laugh real hard and he would sound like an evil genius from one of those old movies?" Brian added

"I know you guys remember this. Remember that night at the prom and he was really hyper so he started dancing like an idiot just to make us all laugh" the whole room began laughing at Jessy's story. After everyone stopped laughing, the room went quit again as everyone thought back to memories of their deceased friend.

Zach suddenly stood up and lifted his glass. "To Travis, let us never forget all the good times we had with him while he was still alive and all the good things he did for us. He sacrificed his life for us and I will never forget him." he said as he looked up into the sky.

Everyone else in the room stood up and put their glasses together "To Travis!" the four said together. They then took a sip of wine and sat back down.

The long sad silence was Brocken by a loud knock coming to the door. "Who could possibly be coming here at nine' clock at night" Zach asked himself as he walked towards the door, but before Zach could make it, the door slammed open and a strong ominous wind threw him to the ground.

Everyone turned their attention toward Zach, and Brian jumped out of his chair and helped him back to his feet. Zach looked toward the door and a dark figure was standing just outside of the light, shrouded in shadow.

"Uh, can I help you?" Zach asked the figure cautiously.

The dark figure suddenly stepped into the light to reveal a man in all black. He was wearing a black balaclava on his face, making only his blood red eyes visible. His long black trench coat almost touched the floor, slightly covering his tight black tank top, which showed off his muscular chest and stomach and the sleeves almost covered his hands, which were also hidden by black leather fingerless gloves, and his loosely fitting black cargo pants were tucked into his pitch-black combat boots. "Greetings lady and gentlemen." his voice was slightly muffled and deepened by the mouthpiece that was attached to the mask into a dark and sinister growl that sent shivers down the spines of everyone in the room. "How are we doing this fine evening?"

"Um, we are doing just fine, but I'm kind of distraught at the moment because a strange man just walked into my house without being invited and is now asking me how im doing." Zach crossed his arms and began giving the man a very annoyed look.

"Oh, I apologize, where are my manners? My name is Venom," he took a bow and then looked around the room, studying all the individuals within. "And I have a proposition for you all."

"Well we aren't interested so I suggest you leave" Zach was clenching his fists and his face had twisted from annoyance to anger.

"You may want to reconsider, this offer, I'm afraid, it is not doled out lightly and the consiquinces of not accepting could be dyer."

"What do you mean by dyer?" Zach suddenly became concerned.

"So, you do want to hear my offer."

"Just get on with it and tell us what you're offering" Brian demanded.

"I offer allegiance." with that said, the individuals in the room began looking at each other awkwardly in confusion.

William was the only one in the room not looking around. He just sat in his chair with his arms crossed. "Allegiance, huh, and why would we want to be allied with you? Besides that, what's in it for us?"

"Not with me, with us." with that he stretched out his arms and four dark figures with red glowing eyes approached from behind him, but they stayed far enough in the dark that no physical features other than their blood red glowing eyes could be made out. "We are the Black Demons and we would like for you to join our little alliance to further guarantee success towards our goal."

William was the only one who was not at least a little intimidated by Venom, and the four dark figures behind him. He stood up at the bottom step of the small flight of stairs that led to the door, looking up at Venom with a defiant smile across his face. "And just what is this goal you and your alliance are trying to accomplish. Oh, and you still haven't answered my question, what's in it for us?"

"Money, fame, agreeable company, power, all of this and more will await you upon our victory, as long as you are on the right side." he spoke with much malice in his voice "And as for our goal. We want to create a utopia. A world as perfect as it could possibly be with all the continents combined under one government. Of course, many will resist and there will be a lot of death in the process but it will all be for the greater good. Think about it, there will be no more wars or famine, lower death rates and more access to medical facilities to the entire world. It will be a perfect world, well, as perfect as the world can be when you take in the sheer cruelty of human nature."

"And let me guess, you think that with the help of our powers you can take the world by force. Well we arent interested." William pointed toward the door. "Now if you don't mind we have some catching up to do." he then turned and began walking back to his chair.

"I'm sorry you feel that way." Venom spoke as if a dark cloud had just been cast over all that is or ever will be. "Let me put in another way, either you join us or you become part of the problem and you die right here right now."

William stoped dead in his tracks and turned toward the man and all the dark figures behind him. "Oh really and just who is going to kill us…." William had a ferocity in his voice that none of them had ever heard before. "...You?"

"I do not sully my hands with the blood of the week. My loyal followers will take care of my light work." he signaled at the people behind him and the four dark figures stepped forward into the light. Everyone looked upon the four with jaws droped and eyes wide open. They could not believe it, it was all their missing friends. They where all there, Guy and Jackie on his left and Joey and Nikki where standing on his right.

"Guy's what are you doing with this maniac?" Zach was amazed to see his friends following the man in the black suit.

None of them responded, they all just refocused their attention to Zach and a sinister smile crossed Jackie and Guy's faces as they looked at each other then back at him. "Let me introduce my demons to you. On the left stands Rockfist and The Inferno" Venom gestured toward Guy and Jackie then he gestured toward Joey and Nikki. Joey placed the fifty-gallon tank he was carrying on his shoulder on the ground and the top electronically popped open and steam shot out. "And on my right stands Cyborg and The Water Witch" their eyes all stopped glowing. Guy and Joey got into a fighting stance, Jackie's hair caught fire and a small flame rose from his tightly clenched fists, water rose from the tank and formed a halo above Nikki's head, while Venom just crossed his arms and an ominous gleam shot into his eyes. "They are all very capable killing machines and will follow my orders to the death."

"That's it!" Brian yelled; his golden aura shooting upward, as he placed his elbows at his side. "I'm tired of listening to all this guy's talk, if he's going to kill us then just kill us." Brian shot forward, flying through the air straight at Venom. "Let's do this!"

Venom did not even flinch at the man charging at him, he mearly uncrossed his arms. When brian got within arms reach of him Venom gently placed two fingers on his fist and pushed hard downward and side stepped to the left and Brian slammed hard into the ground and rolled violently out the door, sliding to a stop about twenty feet away from his original target. He then retook his position, looking forward and crossing his arms. "Very well then." Venom raised his arm and put his hand into the snapping position. "Let's start a riot!" as soon as Venom snapped his fingers Joey jumped straight at Zach, and Nikki at Jessy, the ring of water above her head following close behind her.

"fine then" William flicked away his cigarette and began running with amazing speed and power but right before he got to his target a huge slab of earth jumped from the floor and stopped his attack. "What the...?" William examined the large crack he just made in the wall of rock but before he could fully understand what had happened, another small lab shot out of the ground and hit him right in the jaw flinging him into the air.

Venom signaled at Jackie and he walked outside in order to face Brian. Guy made the slabs of earth go back into the ground but a look of confusion crossed his face when he saw William begin to recover from what should have Brocken his neck and killed him instantly.

"What the hell?"

"Didn't you wonder what my power was?" William didn't have a single scratch on him when he stood up and he began popping his knuckles "im completely invincible and pretty dam strong. I'd say I'm benching about three and a half tons right now." He said as he turned his neck to the left and the right, cracking it on both sides.

"Well then this should be fun." a thick layer of earth formed around Guy's fist as he charged at William and William began charging straight back at him.

Venom turned his attention towards the fight taking place behind him and saw Brian just barely dodge a fireball as he was flying at Jackie with a ball of energy charged in his hand. He flung the ball but Jackie reacted to quickly and destroyed it with another fireball. He lost site of his opponet for split second dew to the smoke only to see him shooting through it with amazing speed. Brian landed a strong hit straight to Jackie's face and sent him flying backwards, but before Jackie hit the ground, he twisted his body so that he would land on his feet and slide backwards. Jackie stood up and a small blue flame rose from his fists. He looked up just in time to see Brian floating just above the ground with his fist reared back ready to strike. Jackie was quick enough to dodge the attack and rebound with one of his own shooting fire from his fist as it made contact, sending an extra jolt of power into Brian's body. Before Brian could recover from the first, Jackie began a devastating series of quick jabs to the torso and finished with a hard uppercut, which he put twice as much explosive force into, sending him into the air. Jackie then used a blast of fire to send himself into the air; meeting Brian and sending him right back down with another flame infused fist, leaving a large indent in the hard ground below.

Jackie landed about ten feet from Brian and began charging fireballs in each hand in an attempt to turn up the heat enough to transform them into white fire. Brian realized what he was doing and took this opportunity to charge up his own energy and before Jackie could even get the heat to half mass Brian put all the energy into his arms and flew straight at him. Jackie saw Brian coming but was nowhere near fast enough to move out of the way. Since Brian had increased the speed of his arms Jackie could barely see his fists move much less block any of them. Brian began only punching with one hand and charging up power in the other one and converting the remaining energy from speed to strength in that arm alone. As soon as the energy had ran out in his right arm he delivered a bone-crushing strike to his stomach and knocked him into the air. He then followed him into the air and kicked him hard to the left then again followed his body and knocked him upwards this time. He repeatedly did this, using Jackie's body as a proverbial pinball in the machine, until Jackie suddenly shot fire from every pour in his body, turning himself into a human fireball that knocked Brian back to the ground.

Venom lost interest in the fight, considering one of his best fighters was being beaten and would possibly die in the fight so he turned his attention to Cyborg, unfortunately he was not doing so well either.

"You stupid traitor!" Zach screamed at Joey as he charged at him once again with electricity charged in his hand. He delivered the punch to Joey's face and knocked him to the ground. Joey struggled to pick himself up. "You know its not to late to go back to our side Joey. Why do you even want to help this maniac? He wants to kill innocent people. He wants to kill your best friends, and you're going to help him, you aren't the man I once knew. What did he do to you?"

Joey's eyes began to glow red with rage. He pulled himself to his feet and a few sparks of electricity shot out of his body. "he is not a maniac, he is a genius, and I wont let anyone talk about my master like that!" his muscles all pulsed a few times then grew about an inch and became incredibly defined. "prepare to die!" his voice sounded as if two people where talking at once, one voice sounded like Joey's but filled with more anger and rage than Zach had ever heard in his voice and the other was an electronically deepened voice that sounded as if it came from Satan himself. Joey suddenly charged straight at Zach, as he began to charge electricity into his hand. When Joey got within arms length of him he closed his fist and threw it at Joey's face but he side stepped and hit Zach in the face and knocked his head back. He then began punching him as hard as he could landing three hits to the stomach two to the face four to the sides and the last and most devastating was a kick straight in the ribs, which hurled Zach backwards. He caught himself and slid on the ground then reared his right hand backwards and when Joey once again charged him, he landed his fist on the cheek, releasing ten thousand volts of electricity with it.

Zach's face was stricken with horror when Joey looked back at him because Joey's skin on most of the left side of his body, and his entire shirt, had been burnt off revealing his robotic endoskeleton. Zach turned his attention and anger toward Venom.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Zach began charging electricity again in his hands, but before he could shoot a single bolt, Joey punched him hard in the face once again.

"He did nothing to me, accept open my eyes. He gave me more power than you could ever imagine. And he offered you the same gift but you rejected it and now you must pay." Joey grabbed the skin remaining on his left arm and ripped it off, revealing his limb to be completely mechanical.

"What are you talking about; he turned you into a machine?"

"He didn't do anything but give me more power than I could ever hope to have before him. Before him, the most I could do was hack into advanced computer systems but now I can manipulate and understand the most advanced technology's of the world and even create even more advanced robotics. I did this to myself Venom merely gave me the power."

"So those robotics control your entire body" Zach began focusing on the electric energy in the air around Joey and then created a bolt of lightning in his hand and shot it straight at him. He then began focusing all the electricity in the air around Joey onto him, making it difficult for him to control any of his body parts, by shocking him violently.

'Dam' Venom thought to himself. 'I should have known not to let Joey fight Zach.' Venom then turned his attention toward the gust of wind that nearly knocked him off balance. It was the fight between Nikki and Jessy.

Jessy was using a huge gust of wind to try to fight back a slab of ice that was being pushed by Nikki's ability. Jessy was struggling immensely to push back the ice while Nikki was only using the force that one hand could put out. Nikki let a sinister smile cross her face as she put the force of both hands into it and pushed the ice right into Jessy, knocking her all the way back to the wall. She then liquefied the ice and brought it back to her. The water split up into individual portions then solidified into ice spikes and shot right back at Jessy. She acted quickly and used an upward blast of wind to redirect the spikes and they stab into the ceiling. Jessy then forced herself into a quick run at Nikki, using the air around her to triple her speed. Nikki merely pulled more water out of the tank and flung it with extreme force at her but Jessy just shot a sharp blast of wind that cut the water straight in half. Jessy was not even a foot away before Nikki had a chance to retaliate. She then began hitting Nikki, shooting small blasts of air out of her fists and she finished by hitting her open palmed with both hands and shot an incredibly strong burst that blew her backward and into the fifty gallon tank. Jessy then pinned her to the tank using the air around her. Nikki concentrated and re-liquefied the ice spikes and combined them with the water on the ground. She then used the water to wrap around Jessy's stomach and fling her into the air. Jessy caught herself in the air and attempted to shoot herself back at her but Nikki used water to wrap around her hands and feet, which stopped her dead in her tracks. While Jessy was suspended in mid-air, Nikki lowered Jessy to eye level with her, only using one hand to control the ice that restrained her.

"Did you actually think that you could beat me Jessy, ha, that's amusing? You should have known that with the power that Venom gave me, you could never hope to beat me." Nikki then gathered water in the shape of a small sword in her other hand. "You know its not to late for you. You can master the air like ive mastered the water you would only need to swear your allegiance to the black demons."

"I think I'll pass." she sneered back. Jessy suddenly began sucking in air to her lungs.

"Oh well, its your loss." Nikki thrust the sword forward, but before she could penetrate Jessy's skin, she felt a strong gust of wind from Jessy's mouth. She struggled to maintain the control over the water that was holding Jessy and fight being pushed backwards at the same time, so she released the hold she had on Jessy in order to fight the wind from slamming her against the wall. As soon as Jessy was released, she threw her hands forward and with them came a terrible wind that made it impossible to fight being slammed into the wall. Nikki quickly recovered and pulled even more water out of the tank and ran at Jessy but before she could get close enough to do any damage Venom felt an extreme heat approaching rapidly behind him. Venom turned his head and saw a large fireball coming quickly at his back. He jumped into a side ways spiral, just barely dodging the fireball that went under him as he fliped his body in midair so that he would land facing the source of the fireball and then he watched as Brian deflected blasts of fire from Jackie's fists.

"Why do you listen to that looser?" Brian asked as he put his right arm at his side and began deflecting the blasts with only his left arm and charging energy into his right hand.

"I'm just fulfilling my end of the bargain. He gave me more power and control over my ability so I'm helping him get what he wants, more power." Jackie suddenly sped up his attack to make it much more difficult for Brian to block with one hand. Brian just put the energy he was charging into his arm, doubling his speed then switched them out and began gathering energy into his left arm. "You see, I'm not stupid I knew that if I didn't join him then he would have just killed me or make me his puppet like he did to my brother and The Witch."

"What do you mean by making them his puppets?" Brian began running straight at him, deflecting the fireballs and charging energy as he ran.

"He has this weird eye thing that allows him to go inside your head and mess with you mind. But he can also raise our power level and, I don't know about you, but the side that can give me more power plus fuck with peoples heads and force them to obey is the side I'd rather fight for." Jackie suddenly side steped and ducked in order to dodge the fully charged punch that Brian tried to hit him with, He then punched Brian hard in the face, shooting fire out of his knuckles as it connected, sending Brian flying backwards. Brian placed his hand on the ground and then spun as he slid so that his feet would land on the ground first. Once Brian slid to a stop he stood up and brushed himself off a little before charging balls of energy in both hands.

"What do you mean by power levels?" Brian then put both hands together and the energy combined to make one large golden ball of pure positive energy.

"Well, everyone who was attacked by that strange red ball five years ago gain a special ability and whatever power level you have determines how much control you have over that ability and how much exposure to those red beams you had determines your power level." Jackie began charging fire in the palms of his hands. "Enough talk lets just get this over with." Jackie said as he ran straight at his oponet

"Fine by me." tiny energy balls suddenly began shooting out of the ball Brian had charged in his hands. Jackie stopped dead in his tracks and began shooting fireballs at all the little energy balls, making them explode before they got to him.

Venom watched this in disappointment. 'Jackie is growing weak and fatigue is setting in, while it looks as if Brian could go on for hour at this same pace. And the rest of my team isn't doing so well either.' he thought as he turned to see Zach shocking Cyborg, his most loyal soldier, making it extremely difficult for him to control his robotics. The Water Witch was struggling with someone with a much lower power level and Rockfist was unconscious 'wait a minute, if Rockfist is unconscious then where's…' before Venom could even finish his thought William punched him hard in the face and broke the mouth piece on his mask.

William was stunned when he quickly got up from a punch that could have broken straight through steel and began to cover his mouth in order to hide what the mouthpiece once covered.

"Demons retreat!" he yelled in a muffled voice. However, when Venom looked around he found that none of his group could get away from their fight except Jackie who merely shot fire from his feet and began to fly away, so Venom decided to make it easier. He jumped forward at William and before he could react Venom began hitting him with a deadly series of quick jabs into all the pressure points in the upper torso, temporarily paralyzing him. He ended it with a hard uppercut to the jaw that made William fall flat on his back. Venom then lunged forward at Zach and drew the samurai sword at his side as he ran. He stopped right in front of Zach then jumped to the left before Zach could strike and sliced upwards cutting deep into the left side of his face. Zach grabbed his face as blood poured out of the gash over his eye and venom shot toward Joey as he recovered from the electrical surge that Zach had just given him.

"Cyborg, I want you to grab Rockfist and the tank and wait for further orders." Venom commanded; now covering his mouth with his jacket.

"Yes master." he agreed as he ran toward Guy, who was lying about thirty feet away in a small crater.

Venom then ran toward Jessy and jumped and before she even knew he was coming he landed behind her. He then hit her hard with two knuckles right at the base of the spine, causing her to colapse and fall to the floor.

"Witch, retreat back to the base."

"Yes master." She then lifted herself up by creating a wave that began carrying her away.

Venom then began running at Joey who was just now placing the large tank on his shoulder. "Cyborg, lets fly!" Joey then looked to the sky and fire began shooting out of his feet, propelling him upward, and venom jumped and grabbed on to his shoulder.

He gave an ominous look down at Brian, who was the only one still on his feet and fully aware of his surroundings, as he disappeared into the distance.


	4. The White Dragons

"What in the hell!" Jessy yelled in astonishment at Zach's newly scared face.

"What?" Zach had no idea what she was so surprised about.

"I just saw that Venom guy cut you right across the eye, what happened to the huge gash that his sword left over your eye that was just squirting blood at me yesterday." she asked.

"Oh, ya I forgot to tell you about that." he slapped his forehead, as if knocking some since into himself "My power allows me to stimulate my nerves by shocking them and it causes my blood to clot faster and all my nerves work about five times faster. So, when I get hurt I just give the afflicted area a small shock and it heals up in about a minute."

Jessy gave him a slightly confused look. "Uh, ok, whatever that means."

"But the weird part is that it left a scar." he began looking in the mirror and examining the new scar over his left eye.

"You just got your eye sliced open, why wouldn't there be a scar?"

"Well I've been stabbed straight through my hand and I healed it without a scar and that's not the only thing. I've been shot, stabbed, broken bones through my skin and I even got thrown through a window, cutting my body up severely and none of them scared up. For some reason, this gash in my skin, that isn't even that deep, left a scar. It didn't even nick my eye just the eye lid." He looked away from the miror to find that Jessy had disappeared. Zach walked into the living room and to see William and Brian picking up the shattered remnants of all the furniture that filled the living room of the castle.

"This sucks why doesn't Zach just call a clean up crew. I know he has the money." Brian complained.

"Why the hell would Zach want to spend good money on something we could do twice as fast if we put our backs in to it?" William asked as he threw another broken piece of wood into the enormous metal barrel he had tied to his back.

"Hey William, open the door and move out of the way." Jessy ordered.

"Uh, ok." William ran towards the doors and opened them both wide and moved out of the way. Jessy then made a powerful gust of wind come from both the left and the right to make all the residual pieces move to the middle of the floor then one twice as strong from behind her to push it all out the door. Zach then focused on the clouds outside and all the electric energy they contain. He flung his fist into the air then brought it hard down toward his side causing a bolt of lightning to slam into the pile, catching it ablaze.

"Good idea Jessy, and an even better one with the lightning there Zach. I'm not going to lie to you dude, that was awesome." Brian complimented as he looked around the empty room.

Jessy looked at him with great surprise 'he actually gave me a compliment' she thought 'he sure has changed since the last time I saw him. I never thought I'd say it but he's become more mature and smarter,' she looked him up and down as she thought to herself and he acted Zach if there were any more chairs in the house. 'How could he change so much in five years, I know that five years is a long time but wow, he sure is different.'

"Lets just go to the furniture store in town and pick up some new ones." William suggested.

"Sounds good to me, but we'll go tomorrow, I'm to tired to go today." said Zach as he pulled a few lawn chairs from the closet.

"You pansy, I'm not even one bit tired." William argued.

"Ya, but not everyone can be a beast like you William." Brian started taking chairs from Zach and setting them up as he spoke. "Besides, what happens if the Black Demons come back real soon? Then they will all just break it again and then that will just have been a waist of money."

Jessy finally pulled herself from her own thoughts "hey speaking of those guys, why the hell would they betray us like that." her mind flashed with the frightening images of all of her old friends that looked so much different now. "What could have possibly made them do this?"

"I don't know but it has something to do with that freak, Venom." Zach took sat down with a drink in his hand and popped the top on it.

"Ya, Jackie said something about how he wasn't brain washed like joey and nikki was. He said that Venom had these weird mind controlling powers and he used them to mess with their heads, to make them follow him. He said something else to that I didn't get." Brain explained.

"What was that?" Jessy asked as she sat down in one of the fold-out chairs and took a sip from her drink that Zach just handed her.

"He said something about Venom also being able to raise your power level with his eyes. He said that the more exposure you got from that red ball, the higher your power level and that the higher your level the more control you will have on that particular ability." He continued with a confused look on his face. "but what I don't get is how this guy could brainwash our friends to the point that they would whether kill us than talk to us."

"Well that whole power level thing kinda makes since." Zach thought aloud "when you protected Jessy that night, I watched as the beam that was on you followed you and combined with hers as you got in front of them both and you have much more control over your energy than she has over the wind. Plus I've talked to Jackie before about his power, and the most he used to be able to do was make the fire grow and move it around a little but nothing like I saw him do yesterday and the same goes for the rest of the black demons. Actually, now that I think about it, Joey said something strange to me during our fight. He said, before Venom the most I could do was hack into advanced systems, but look at him now he's using more advanced robotics than anything I've ever seen before."

"Speaking of Joey," William began "what is his power anyways?"

"He is a techno path" Brian answered for him.

"What is that" Jessy cocked her head slightly in confusion.

"Its someone who can control technology" he answered again.

"Exactly." Zach agreed.

"Hey I was just thinking." William began "They've got a cool team name, how about we come up with a name. I was thinking something like 'The Badasses' or maybe 'The B.A.M.F.'s'"

"What the hell is a bamf?" Jessy gave him a strange look.

"Bad ass mother fucker, B.A.M.F"

"Oh my god' she chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"That's not a bad idea, but lets just go with something a little more kick ass." Zach argued

"What could be more kick ass than badass mother fuckers?" William rebudled

"I don't know, I was thinking something like The Wolf Pack or…"

"That just gay Zach"

"No, The B.A.M.F.'s is gay"

"We don't need a name because we are just awesome enough as it is." Jessy through in.

"No, it would be cool to have a name, what about…" Zach argued

"How about The White Dragons." Brian suggested. Everyone stopped arguing and thought about it as they all looked at him, half confused and half surprised. "Think about it, White Dragons in the Chinese mythology were heavenly sign's of purity and light and demons in every religion or culture are ominous sign's of darkness, hatred, and sin, its almost the exact opposite of their teams name. Plus, it sounds a lot cooler than The White Angels, don't you think." they all looked at each other and thought about it for a second.

"Hell ya." William agreed enthusiastically as he smiled ear to ear. Everyone else began nodding in approval as they looked at each other then back at Brian.

"To 'The White Dragons'." Zach said as he lifted his can in a toast.

"To 'The White Dragons'." the rest of the group said in unison and knocked their cans together and took a drink.

Brian suddenly looked at his watch and an extremely worried look crossed his face "oh, crap."

"What?" Zach asked as Brian pulled out his cell phone and began dialing a number.

"I forgot to call Crystal. I'm surprised my phone hasn't been ringing off the hook." he put his phone to his ear as and looked confused again. He then pulled his phone away and examined it for a second then began dialing another number.

"What's wrong now?" Jessy asked in annoyed tone.

"It said that her number was disconnected. I'm calling her moms house to see if she's over there, do you mind if I go into the other room Zach." he asked.

"Not at all, help yourself." he told him as Brian walked into the other room with a look of extreme concern on his face.

The three sat for a while and lightly conversed while Brian was busy in the other room trying to contact. It was about ten minutes before Brian returned with a look of pure despair upon his face.

"Brian, what's wrong?" Zach asked as he put his hand on Brian's shoulder.

"She… she's dead." he said with a look of immense shock in his eyes and a blank look on his face. The whole room was dumbstruck by this unexpected news.

Zach finally shook himself out of his stupefied state. "Oh… oh my god, wh-what happened?" he managed to spit out.

Brian found it hard to articulate his thoughts and his voice crackled as he spoke. "Well, she was murdered." speaking those words caused his heart to sink more than it had since the death of his best friend. "She was found with multiple slices all over her body and an unknown type of venom had eaten away at her organs and was leaking from five puncture wounds in her neck."

"What do you think could have happened to her?" Jessy questioned as she looked back and forth at Zach and William.

Brian's face suddenly twisted into a look of rage and his eyes burned with pure destructive fury. "I know exactly what happened to her." his voice was so tainted with so much wrath that it became darker and more sinister than any of them had heard since the roar that had escaped Travis's mouth on that terrible night, so long ago. "It was that wretched snake venom, why do you think they call him Venom." Zach stepped backwards slightly as Brian's eyes began to glow a golden yellow and aura of the same light began emanating from his skin that was unlike the other aura that he had previously displayed. This new arua was smaller and less frantic than the last aura, which blared outward like an untamed blaze. "I'm going to tear him apart, piece by piece!!!" he screamed as this new aura began slightly flaring upward in small bursts. The very earth beneath him began to rumble and the stone floor under his feet began cracking and caving in to the enormous energy he was producing through his rage. "RAAAAAHHHH!!!!" he screamed as the wind produced by all the energy gathering within Brian's body started to push Zach back a little.

"Ok Brian, your about to destroy the whole castle so just give me a few good hits to release some of that anger." William stood up and began flexing in order to withstand the furious blows he new Brian was about to deliver. "go ahead, I can take what ever you can dish out; I promise you that."

Brian took him up on his offer and began charging all the energy that was gathering into his hands into tiny orbs of golden light in his hands. He stopped screaming and glared at William, his eyes still glowing with the same golden color as his aura, and began to focus on the energy gathering in his hands. The tiny orbs began pulsating growing larger with every beat. A second golden aura formed around his new one that was much like his original glow but it was twice as vibrant and large as it used to be. The orbs grew to the size of beach balls "you think you can take anything I can dish out." his voice was still just as dark and sinister as before. Both of the orbs were suddenly focused into the size of baseballs "well lets just see about that." he then slammed both of his wrists together, forcing the two golden orbs together and into a giant golden beam.

"Oh shit!" William shouted as the blast of pure power shot towards him. The beam hit his crossed arms and he slid backwards a few feet, cracking the ground as he slid across the stone floor. William dug his feet into the ground and tried to push back the enormous force of the ray as it was forced to split off and go into smaller individual rays that merely went around him. William began walking forward and as he approached Brian a menacing half-smile crossed his glowing face.

"RAAAAAAHHH!!!!" Brian screamed as he forced even more energy into the golden ray. William held his ground for a few seconds before being lifted off the ground and smashed through the wall. The beam continued to carry him outside until the beam suddenly stopped.

Brian panted heavily and let his arms drop to his sides as smoke rose from his burnt palms. The second aura had already disappeared and the smaller one quickly faded along with the yellow glow in his eyes. He collapsed to the ground in exhaustion as his eyes returned to their normal color and his muscles shrunk back to their original size.

Zach picked Brian off the ground and carried him into his room. He returned from placing Brian in his bed with a look of sadness and anger. He plopped down in his chair and dug his face in his hands. The room sat quiet for a few moments before Zach decided to speak up.

"We have to defeat them." he said as he pulled his face from his hands. "The killing wont stop until he is dead."

"So how are we going to stop them, they are all pretty strong." Jessy asked.

"Well, we cant kill him, then we are no better than he is." Zach answered.

"Hell, with how pissed Brain was we should just let him take care of the bastard." William joked as he walked back into the living room, covered in burns. "That one actually hurt me, I haven't been hurt at all since the night we got these weird powers."

Zach thought hard about what William had just said as he looked at Williams newly formed burn scars.

"That's actually not a bad idea." he thought aloud.

"Hey, I was just kidding." Williams face changed from a joking smile to surprise once he saw that Zach was not joking around "didn't you see how much of a badass that guy was. He gave you a new scar, which also hasn't happened since the we got our powers, he brought Jessy down with one punch and he even brought me down. We don't even know what he can really do but he's obviously pretty powerful if he can take a punch from me and survive it plus do all that."

"That's exactly the point. We don't know what he can do but Brian can have strength and speed that can rival anything on gods green earth if he manipulates his energy the right way and that will make him an extremely formidable opponent. By the time he is through with the fight, even if he doesn't win, we will at least know the limit to Venom's powers and if we know what he can do then we can easily devise a way to bring him down and stop him from causing anymore deaths." Zach explained.

"I'm going to do more than just find out what he can do." Brian staggered out of the room as he spoke.

"Brian, what are you doing out of bed so soon?" Jessy demanded in concern.

"Calm down I'm just fine." he replied as he almost collapsed to the ground. William jumped up and caught him before he could hit the ground.

"Dang, Brian. First you become the first to even put a scratch on me since the accident and now you cant even stand up." William sat him down on the ground slowly. "I think Jessy was right, you need to go back to bed and rest for a little while."

"No!" Brian swatted Williams helping hand away. "I wont rest until I'm strong enough to crush him with a single ball of energy. He will pay for killing the love of my life, they will all pay!" the original aura reappeared around him and he drug himself to his feet. The aura began flaring upwards for a few seconds before he collapsed to the ground and passed out once again. William shook his head and smiled as he threw Brian over his shoulder and carried him back to the bed in which he was originally sleeping.

"Well his determination and stubbornness definitely hasn't changed." Zach pointed out.

"No, because the old Brian wouldn't have passed out." William joked as he walked back into the room.

"Ya, your right." Zach agreed. They all began laughing at the joke, unknowing the surprise that awaited them the next day.


	5. The Surprise Visitor

"Hopefully Brian will be back before the Black Demons return. Because if he's not, I'm sorry to say that we don't have much of a chance." He said as he sat down in his chair. Brian had flew off a week earlier in the middle of the night without telling anyone where he was going or when he would be back.

"You've got to be kidding me." William stated bluntly "They don't have a chance, if we are serious enough about it. I saw you fighting Joey; you almost paralyzed him without even trying. Imagine if you hit him with the same power lightning as you hit me and, if I wanted to, I could take Guy and Jackie at the same time without even trying. Sure, Jessy was having a little trouble with Nikki, but once you take Joey out all you two have to do is tag team her and she's dead. Then, all we have to do is wait for me to take down the two nerdy bastard's that I'm fighting and we can all take that cowardly son-of-a-bitch Venom down. I know he cant take all three of us, no matter how much of a badass he _**thinks**_ he is." he spoke in his usually cocky and overconfident tone.

"Ya, I guess your right, but we still need him just in case Venom decides to jump in right away. What then, smart guy?" Zach contradicted.

"Well then I kick your ass for being a smartass ogre bitch." he replied

"And that will help, how?"

"Hey maybe he will get a kick out of it and start laughing to hard to fight back." William joked.

"Hey children, stop arguing." Jessy interrupted.

"Children?" Zach said as he gave her a dirty look. "I'm three years older and about ten years maturer than you are."

"Zach did I ask for your lip." she said with a giggle as she tried not to smile.

Zach opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a knocking at the door. Everyone in the room began looking back and forth at each other.

"Were you expecting company Zach?" Jessy asked as she gave another nervous look towards the door.

"No, I wasn't." he sat there for a few seconds in hesitation before he slowly got out of his chair and began walking to the door. William stood up and held his tightly clenched fists at his sides and Jessy began focusing the air around her closer to her to get ready for a quick burst, if needed.

Zach charged enough electricity in the palm of his hand for a small blast of lighting as he reached for the door knob and started to turn it slowly. He then quickly flung open the door and got into a battle stance with his pre-charged fist reared back ready for a preemptive strike.

Zach was suddenly caught off guard by the sudden jump the person at the door made. He felt a strong pressure around his neck as the small person was squeezing his neck.

He pulled them off of his neck to get a better look at his attacker and he let his guard down once he realized he was now holding his wife, Kristen, in his arms.

She pulled herself back into his warm embrace and held his neck tight as she spoke "I missed you so much." she said with much affection in her voice.

Zach did not return her affection he merely hugged her tight and gave a who full sigh "What are you doing here?" he questioned in worry as he pulled her away to look her in the face. "I told you not to come until I told you it was safe."

"Well you told me you were shooting lighting bolts at people and I just had to see it." she answered with a playful smile. Her smile faded win she realized that Zach was not even slightly thrilled to see her. "Well aren't you at least glad to see me."

"Honey, of corse I am. Its just that its not safe to be here right now." he placed her on the ground and stared down at her, keeping the same woeful and concerned look plastered on his face. "The Black Demons are a very dangerous group of people and I don't want you to get caught in the middle of this." he grabed her hand and held it with both of his own as he continued "I don't want to lose you."

Kristen simply smiled and gently put her hand on his face. "Zach, you don't have to worry about me. I can take care of myself, ok." she then gave him a gentle slap on his cheek and walked around him. "Hey William and Jessy, long time no see"

"Kristen, I wasn't kidding. It's really dangerous for you to be here. You need to get out of here as soon as possible." he pleaded as he grabbed her bags and followed her. She ignored his pleas and hugged Jessy "I'm buying you the next flight back to the states and your leaving with it."

"Who says I want to leave again?" Kristen argued and got a devious smile on her face. She then began walking towards Zach, shaking her hips seductively as she slowly made her way to him. When she got close enough she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him an enticing smile and widened her eyes to make her look more innocent. "You don't want to get rid of me that quickly," she put her finger to her mouth and bit her bottom lip "do you?" Kristen knew how to manipulate him in all the right ways.

Zach could not help but to notice her divine beauty. Her seductive brown eyes, her shiny black hair, her small face and not to mention her voluptuously curved body. He pulled himself out of the entrancing eyes of his wife long enough to grab her arms and gently put them back at her sides. He rolled his neck in an attempt to shake off the general arousal she had just caused. "Well, baby, if you don't leave then I wont be able to fight as well as I could because I'll be worried about you the whole time."

"Dam, it didn't work." she jokingly stomped her foot and gave a fake pouty face. Zach kneeled down and gave her a kiss then grabbed her bags and carried them into their room.

"I'm going to call the airport tomorrow and schedule the next…" Zach was cut off by an extremely loud knocking at the door. "Oh no."

The door flung open to reveal Venom and the other members of his group standing behind him, all their eyes glowing with an ominous and sinister blood-red glow. Venoms eyes stopped glowing to reveal his menacing crimson irises. "We're back."


	6. Rules of the Battlfeild

"Kristen, go into our room and stay there until I tell you it's safe." Zach ordered. Venom kept his eyes fixed on the small woman as she moved across the room.

"Well, well, well, who is this lovely young lady?" He asked in his usual, menacing, voice.

"None of your business freak." Zach barked.

"I sense a little hostility in your voice."

"You haven't begun to see hostility." Zach cracked his knuckles and got into his battle stance. William and Jessy got behind him and both got into their own stances.

"Well if you are all so ready to die then so be it." Venom lifted his hand in a snapping motion. "Lets start a riot." with that, he snapped his fingers and Joey ran straight at Zach, Nikki at Jessy, and Guy and Jackie both at William.

William ran straight at Venom but he did not budge. William then surprised him by jumping over him and William's two attackers followed close behind. His plan to bring the fight outside had worked. Meanwhile Jessy flew over to the left and Zach to the right, in order to keep the destruction to a minimum.

'Ok this is going to be easy' Zach thought as Joey charged at him and he gathered electricity in his hand. Zach shot a bolt of lightning at him but, instead of paralyzing him, the lightning had no effect. "What?" he thought aloud right before Joey landed a hard hit to his face.

"What the hell just happened." Zach questioned as he got back up and rubbed his cheek.

"So, I see you've noticed my new and improved body." electricity suddenly flowed from his spine to his open palm. "I've added a super charged lightning rod in my back that not only attracts electrical currents but it also stores it and converts it into a form in which I can use to my own advantage." Joey then flung his arm forward, shooting a red bolt of lightning at Zach and knocking him backwards, into the wall. He pulled himself back to his feet holding his chest. "It hurts, doesn't it bitch?"

"This is going to be harder than I thought," Zach said as he got back into his fighting stance.

Joey chuckled a little "What, you think you're going to fight me now that your electricity is useless? Please, don't make me laugh." he suddenly shot forward and threw his fist straight at him. Zach caught his fist and gave him a sinister smile.

"Useless, huh." Zach returned his attack with a punch of his own that sent Joey flying across the room. Joey got back up and ran straight back at his old friend with his fist reared back, ready to strike.

Zach blocked the punch with his forearm and landed a hard uppercut of his own and then punched him in the stomach and once again in the face. The last punch sent Joey rolling backwards. Joey slammed his fist into the ground and slid to a stop, he then ran straight at Zach again, rearing his fist back. He punched at Joey but he twisted just in time to dodge it and land one of his own. After the first, he landed a strong series of hits one in the stomach, one in the chest, and two in the face. Zach stumbled backward and Joey punched him through a wall. He tried to deliver another punch but Zach dodged it and he dug his fist into the wall. Before Joey could pull it out, Zach grabbed him by the back of the head and began slamming it hard into the wall until his face broke through it. He then through him backwards and created another large hole in the wall they had just been sent through.

Zach followed him through the hole and realized that he had just broken through the glass case that once contained his late uncle's ancient hammer. The hammer had landed right next to Joey's right hand. Joey noticed how much Zach was staring at the hammer as he got back on his feet, so he grabbed the hammer with both hands and tried, in vain, to pick it up. Zach took this opportunity to kick Joey straight in the face and send him flying into the air. He looked down at the hammer and tried to pick it up but it was too heavy so he grabbed it with both hands and tried, with all of his might, to pull it off the ground, but his efforts were in vain. He continued to pull on it, straining hard, but it would not budge. Electricity suddenly started flaring upward around him and the hammer suddenly became lighter. He realized this and started putting more electricity into it and it became as light as air. He looked back up and Joey was right there with his fist reared back. Zach instinctively hit him with the bottom of the war hammers staff and it sent a jolt of electricity through his body sending him flying backwards. Zach examined the large war hammer and remembered what his uncle had told him as a child.

'This hammer contains power beyond anything you could ever imagine if you only know how to use it.' he must not have been lying, Zach thought to himself. He pulled himself out of his thoughts just in time to realize that Joey was once again running straight for him so Zach thought he would try out his new toy by slamming it into the ground, creating a huge orb of electricity that through Joey backwards. Zach chuckled a little as he admired his new weapon. He then hit it on the ground once more and it shot out an extremely powerful lightning bolt that sent Joey straight through the wall and onto the ground outside the castle.

'Looks like Zach's doing his job right for once' William thought as he pulled his attention from his attacker for a split second, but a split second was all Guy needed to catch him off guard. Guy suddenly uppercut William hard with a stone slab that shot up from the ground and sent him flying into the air. Guy then jumped up on the rock and punched him even farther into the air.

"Jackie, now!" Guy yelled down at Jackie who was charging two fireballs and as soon as they turned into white fire, he threw one of the fireballs at Williams back. The other, he turned into a stream of white fire that engulfed William completely.

"Ha! We got him." Guy yelled triumphantly.

"Hell yeah!" Jackie said as he jumped in order to slap Guy's open palm. "Well that was tough, but we finally got him."

"That's what you idiots think." William chuckled as his smoking body emerged from the rubble. "Hey, you guys burnt off all my cloths." he exclaimed as he looked down at his completely exposed body.

Jackie and Guy both covered their eyes and looked away "Good god man, cover yourself," Guy said very loudly.

"What's the matter, I would think a homo like you would love to see this beautiful body of mine. Just look at these muscles." William boasted.

"Alright Guy, let's just kill him quick so we won't have to look at him anymore." Jackie suggested. Guy nodded his head in agreement and they looked back toward William but saw nothing. They scanned the area but saw no sight of him. Guy, now realizing that he must be hiding behind one of the large rocks he had summoned, closed his eyes and focused hard on the ground. He could since the vibrations William's feet were making in the ground. Immediately pinpointing his position, he shot a rock under his feet, which sent William at least one hundred feet into the air. Jackie then shot fire from his feet with white flame surrounding his fist. William came to his senses just in time to catch Jackie's fist, William then twisted his body and threw Jackie's body above his own. William then punched Jackie hard in the gut and his body went flying into the air. Guy used a huge slab of earth to try to knock William farther into the air but he twisted in mid-air and fell fist first into the slab, destroying it. As soon as he hit the ground he charged straight at Guy who threw a fist at his face, but it had no effect, William just returned the hit thrice as hard. Before Guy could even slightly recover from the last hit, he continued to hit him just as hard. He hit him hard in the stomach then gave a right hook to his face and brought his elbow back into Guy's face, knocking it in the opposite direction. William finished his series of hits with an extreme uppercut that sent Guy flying.

William then reached over to a slab of earth that Guy had brought up and he ripped it completely out of the ground. "Time for a taste of your own medicine" he roared as he hurled the rock straight at him and hit him hard in his face, causing him to plummet back to earth. William gave a wicked half smile as he noticed his second attacker flying down at him using the fire from his feet as jets. Jackie came about two feet from the ground before curving back upward, flying straight at William with white ember surrounding his fist.

Jackie thought that this attack would finish William off for good. Combining the momentum caused by the 150 mile-per-hour speed he was flying at and the fact that he had enough power in his fist to blow right threw a ten-ton steel door made it impossible for even William to survive.

William chuckled a little as Jackie raced toward him with such confidence in his eyes. He then got extremely serious and reared his open-palmed hand backwards and stepped forward in order to brace himself to meet Jackie head on.

William slammed his open palm into Jackie's face stopping him instantly while flinging his body forward but before his body could fly into spirals he bashed his face into the ground. Jackie was knocked completely unconscious but that did not stop William from unleashing as much pain as he possibly could by punching Jackie once more in the stomach and then in the face. He noticed Guy slowly getting up so he grabbed Jackie's leg and launched his motionless body straight at him. Guy was knocked back to the ground by Jackie's body hitting him straight in the gut. William walked over to him, picked him up by his neck and threw him straight over toward the open doorway in which Venom stood.

Venom sidestepped Guy's body and stopped him by elbowing his face and knocking him to the ground. Guy began pulling himself to his feet and Venom grabbed him by the throat and brought him to eye level with himself.

Guy watched in fear as Venom's crimson irises suddenly consumed his pupil and began to glow blood red. His face was struck with pure horror as Venom lifted his body and brought their faces closer to each other. Venom shot a beam of demonic light into Guy's panicked eye's and caused them to give off the same blood red glow. Guy's body was paralyzed as the demonic energy flowed threw his being.

Venom stopped the beam of light then dropped Guy, letting him fall to the ground.

"Now that I've gotten rid of your fatigue and raised your power level to 7.5 you should be able to at least hold him off until one of your teammates becomes available to help you." he exclaimed in his usually cold and menacing voice.

Guy chuckled ominously as he looked down at his now bulging muscles with his still glowing red eyes. The glow in his eye's faded but his sinister smile didn't. He looked back at William who was now cracking his knuckles and looking back at him. Guy lunged at him but Venom did not care enough to continue watching because he was much more interested in watching the fight between The Water Witch and Jessy.

Venom watched with great interest as Jessy shot into the air with wind swirling around her fist. Her fist hit the ground and the air swirling around her fist exploded and knocked Nikki backward but she caught herself before she hit the ground and twisted her body to again face her attacker. Nikki pulled water from the two pouches and flung the contents of the left at Jessy but she slapped it away using a gust of air. She ran at Jessy as she shot the water from the second pouch at her. As Jessy was distracted by knocking the water out of the air, Nikki got within striking distance and delivered a hard hit to her face. Nikki then hit her again in the stomach and once more in the face. Jessy was knocked to the ground but the persistent young woman easily got back up and charged at Nikki with a swirling ball of air charged in her open palm. Jessy was suddenly stopped before she could get to her target by the water that was knocked on the ground forming around her hand then solidifying. She looked down at her hand and then looked back at Nikki's smiling face. She was holding out one hand to control the ice that formed around Jessy's left hand but she seemed to forget that Jessy still had a right hand. She suddenly shot wind straight at Nikki and caught her off guard. When Nikki looked back down Jessy was already within striking distance of her. Jessy suddenly grabbed her by the throat punched her with her ice-incrusted fist, right in the jaw, then used a huge gust of wind to knock Nikki into the wall behind her. Jessy then focused on the ice covering her hand and she broke it by forcing the air to circle it with extreme speed until it began to crack enough for her to open her hand to finish it. Now that both of her hands were free, she was able to use her full power. She used an enormous blast to send her opponent slamming into the ceiling but as Nikki fell to the ground, she focused on the three-gallon jug she had on her back before the fight began and pulled all the water out of it. As soon as she hit the ground, she shot the water straight at Jessy but she blocked it with a shield of air. She tried to push the water back but it was no use. Nikki proved to be much more powerful than she was. The water just kept moving closer and Jessy was powerless to stop it.

"Look at how weak you are, no wonder all your relationships end so badly." Nikki said coldly as she pushed the water closer to Jessy in an attempt to crush her with the immense force the water had behind it. "You are nothing compared to me. Why do you think all your boyfriends get tired of you, Its because they know that they can just walk all over you and guy's like strong women. Your pathetic."

Jessy's eyes suddenly began to glow a milky white color as the rage began to build inside her. She began pushing the air shield toward Nikki, forcing the water back with it. "Your wrong." she growled. "YOU'RE WRONG!" she screamed as the air shield suddenly grew three times its size and it forced its way to about one foot away from her. Nikki tried to stop the water but Jessy's rage almost proved too much for her.

"Oh really?" Nikki said as her eyes began glowing blood red and she pushed the air back to about half way between the two.

Venom watched in wonder as Jessy's power level quickly went from 2.1 to 6.3 while Nikki has stayed at an even eight. 'I knew her power was based on emotions, but I never knew it possible for someone's power to triple with just one fit of rage.'

The air and water both wavered back and forth, as the struggle for power raged on but Nikki proved more powerful once again, as the water began overpowering the wind and they both moved towards Jessy. Jessy knew if she continued to stand there and fight like this then she would eventually be overpowered so she shot upward and gathered wind around her fist once again. She planed to hit the ground and knock Nikki backward but she was stopped in mid-air by a fierce burst of water that knocked her into the wall and her power level dropped back down to its normal 2.1.

Nikki chuckled in victory as she gazed upon the seemingly unconscious young woman that lay before her feet. She then brought water into her hand in the shape of a blade and solidified it to form a sword.

"Prepare to die, little girl." Nikki exclaimed with malice in her voice as she plunged the ice blade down at Jessy's back. Jessy took the opportunity that she had been waiting for, the exact moment Nikki was off guard, to shoot up into the air with a massive blast of wind that knocked Nikki on her back. She took the opening she had just created, and shot a gust of wind down at Nikki but she rolled out of the way just in time to dodge the attack.

"This fight is over." Venom thought aloud "Jessy just used most of the energy she had left by upping her power so much and The Witch hasn't even broken much more than a few beads of sweat. Cyborg and Zach are just about even now that he dropped the hammer. William has the upper hand right now but once Nikki is finished with her opponent she could even the odds a little and then it will be all of the Black Demons against Zach. Then all we have to do is track down Brian and kill him, or force him to join us. World domination will be a breeze after all the opposing infected are gone."

"How about I save you the trouble of tracking me down." a voice called out from behind him. Venom turned to see a very tall man dressed in all white floating with his arms crossed and a devilish half smile across his face.

"You ready to die, bitch?" Brian asked in his usually cocky manner as he landed on the ground.

Venom merely turned and replied in a voice laced in much more malevolence and excitement than usual. "If you think you can," he widened his legs and got into a newly created stance, he had his left arm faced downward, open palmed with the fingers curved, and his right arm in front of his face, with his thumb, index, and middle finger outward and curled. "Then go right ahead and kill me.

Brian took this as a personal challenge and flew straight at him with his fist held out straight in front of him. Venom shifted his torso to the left and Brian flew by. Brian turned in mid air and flew back at him. He stopped just within arms length of Venom and started throwing fists at will but Venom blocked them all with ease and threw Brian backwards. Brian just charged energy into his arms and came right back and did the same thing but this time Venom was having quite a bit of trouble blocking these attacks. Venom missed blocking one of the fists and was hit hard in the stomach; Brian took this opening and started hitting him with every fist he hurled at his opponent. Brian ended the series of blows with a hard hit to the face that sent Venom flying up into the air. Brian followed and knocked him hard back to the ground.

"Not so tough now are you?" Brian laughed as he again crossed arms and landed a few feet away from Venom.

"Pretty good," Venom said cockily as he got back into his stance "but is it good enough?" with that he shot at Brian and landed on one foot right in front of him. Brain punched down at him but he sidestepped to the left and retaliated with a punch of his own, straight to Brian's face and knocked him back. He just charged his arms and shot right back. Brian did the same as before and began throwing his fists as fast he could and, just as before, they were to fast for Venom to block and he was hit hard and knocked to the ground. Venom slid on his back until he put both his hands on the ground and threw himself into the air, doing a flip so he would land on his feet and then shot right back at Brian and began punching at him as fast as he could. Brian was able to block them all with ease, because of the enhanced speed from the energy he had put into his muscles, until Venom used his knuckles to punch a pressure point in both of his hands with extreme accuracy. As he focused on the pain Venom took the opening to his advantage and hit Brian hard in his face and then began hitting him in all the pressure points on the front of the torso with exact precision. Once he had hit them all he jumped in the air and spun around to deliver a hard kick to his face that knocked him into the wall. Brian recovered just in time to catch Venom's fist and slam him into the wall then fling him upward. He followed Venom into the air and started hitting him farther upward until Venom hit the ceiling. Brian then let him fall down until he was at waist level and then interlocked his fingers together and struck his opponent in the back, sending him flying fast toward the stone ground below. He flew down so he could hit him again but Venom twisted in mid air, barely dodging the attack, and retaliated with a powerful blow to the artery on his left side before Brian's body was out of range. He was knocked a few feet away but he quickly recovered and flew back at him ready to strike with, yet another, fearsome attack. He threw a hard hit and Venom twisted out of the way once again and hit him hard in the face. Brian, once again, recovered then began throwing a series of deadly hits. Venom, being at an extreme disadvantage in the air, could only block a few of the hits before being knocked down into the ground. As he painfully slid backwards a few feet Brian landed gracefully a few feet away.

Venom pulled himself back to his feet slowly as he spoke "Well, your a lot stronger than I thought, but your still not a threat." he said as he brushed some dust off of his arms.

Brian cocked his head a little and gave him a confused look. "I just kicked your ass all over this castle, exactly how am I not a threat to you?" he said as he gave a slight chuckle and a cocky smile.

"Because," Venom began "I'm not even fighting with half of my true ability." Venom then removed his trench coat, one arm at a time, to reveal the black tank top and his extremely defined and muscular arms underneath. As he removed the long black leather jacket Brian could not help but notice small metal shackles on each wrist but his attention was brought back to the jacket when it made a large thud upon hitting the ground. "You see," he continued as he began to undo his left shackle. "My jacket was made of a demon's hide, so it weighs about ninety pounds on its own, the shackles around my wrists and ankles are made from demonic metal and placed under a spell to make them heavier." he successfully removed the one on his left and began working on the one on his right. "The ones that I'm removing right now weigh about one hundred pounds each, and the ones on my ankles weigh two hundred each. In case your having trouble, that's about six hundred and ninety pounds I'm in the process of removing." he knelt down on one knee, lifted his pants leg, and began removing the shackle around his left ankle.

"Demonic metals and demon skin leather, do you really expect me to believe this crap?"

"I don't really care what you believe, but believe it or not, I'm about to show you why the Black Demons all respect, and fear, their glorious leader." Venom replied as he finished with the shackle on his right ankle and placed all the weights in his right hand. He dropped all the weights on the ground at once and they landed with an extremely loud smash that cracked the stone floor beneath it, along with catching the attention of everyone in the room for a few seconds. Venom threw a few punches and kicks in the air to get used to the lack of weight again. "Ah that's better" he then got back into his battle ready stance "Well, come at me and we can finish this fight once and for all." he said with more cruel intent and cocky attitude in his voice than ever before.

Brian began charging energy in his arms, 'I'd better put a little extra, just in case' he thought to himself, as he got ready to charge his opponent again. He flew straight at Venom, ready to strike. He stopped just within arms length and began punching at Venom, but to no avail. Venom just began dodging every attack by moving his body out of the way of every single fist thrown at him until Brian threw his fist just a little to hard to the left and Venom let it barely graze his chest so that when he moved his body out of the way Brian would lose his balance. As he fell to the ground Venom punched him hard in the side and kneed him in the stomach and sent him flying away with another hard hit to his side. Brian rolled away in defeat but recovered quickly.

"Wow, you have gotten faster," Brian began charging as much energy as he thought he could into his arms "but not fast enough!" he screamed as he lunged himself forward yet again. This time, Venom was not able to dodge the attacks with the increased speed, but he was able to block all the punches with ease. Suddenly, Venom threw Brian's fist to the side and punched him in the stomach. He followed that punch with one to his face and then punched him again in the stomach. He then began hitting him hard in the stomach about ten times then finished his series of attacks with an uppercut that threw him upward into the air. Venom pursued him and did a back flip while kicking Brian and hurling him farther into the air in the process. As soon as Venom landed back on the ground he ran at the wall and jumped from it straight at Brian and kicked him hard in the back, causing him to spin in the air to where his front was facing the ground and his back facing the ceiling. Venom then jumped off his back, flipped in mid-air so his feet hit the ceiling first and he jumped from it, back at Brian. This time, he twisted his body to try and stop the attack but Venom just started punching wildly and Brian was to slow to block a single blow without energy-enhanced muscles. Venom kicked back off and repeated what he had just done but this time, when he shot back down at Brian; Brian stopped himself in mid-air, caught the first attack and threw Venom to the ground. Venom rolled on the ground until he forced himself back to his feet and slid to a stop. Brian charged two balls of energy and started shooting multiple orbs down at Venom. He began jumping back and forth, dodging the exploding orbs as he ran back at Brian. He jumped into the air and Brian charged one last ball and threw it at him. Venom merely caught the energy ball and threw it back at him.

"What the…?" Brian was interrupted by the energy hitting him hard in the stomach and exploding. Brain was shot backwards and before he could even recover slightly Venom shot threw the cloud of smoke and began punching furiously until he started falling then he flipped forward and brought his foot down hard on the top of Brian's head. Once Brian hit the ground his adversary landed a few feet away and Brian began slowly getting back up.

"I will not be made a fool of!" Brian growled as he got up and the glowing golden aura returned.

Venom chuckled a little "Don't even bother, you've lost, except it and be done, before you get hurt." with that he turned his back to Brian and began walking toward his weights.

Brian dragged himself back to his feet, placed his elbows at his sides and closed his fists. "Don't turn your back on me!" he screamed as the ground shook beneath him and the veins in his arms and head began to show more vibrantly. Venom just continued to walk away, paying no mind to Brian's demand. Brian's eye's and body began to glow once more with the same golden glow as before as his rage grew immensely. "I won't be ignored!!" Brian screamed with such intensity and power that the ground shook and cracked beneath him and everyone in the room turned their attention towards the two of them.

Venom turned back around to face Brian. "Fine, you want to make this fight all about power?" Venom smiled sinisterly under his mask and his eyes began to glow. "Fine by me." he began to glow in the same manner as his opponent. His aura was as blood red as his eyes and his veins began to show just as vibrantly as Brian's. Both of their auras began glowing even more boldly as they brought forth the demonic energy more and more.

"RRRRRAHG!!!" Brian screamed as his muscles all began pulsating until they grew to at least twice their normal size, just as they did that terrible and rainy night in the church parking lot, but this time Brian's rage, and his power, had grown to fearsomely astonishing levels.

"RRRRRRAGH!!!!" Venom released a terrible roar as his demonic aura grew and the veins in his muscles bulged out and created an even more menacing appearance in him. His muscles began pulsating and growing just as Brian's did, but as they did the stone beneath him began to crack and break.

Brian's muscles pulsated once more before he ran at his adversary. Venom roared as he charged at the golden glowing man that was advancing rapidly upon him. The two enemies' stopped right within arms length of each other and Venom threw a quick punch at Brian but he caught it with ease. Brian retaliated with a punch of his own but Venom easily caught the slow moving fist. They released each other's fists and inter locked their fingers in order to try and over power one another.

As they struggled to push each other backwards their aura's both grew about five feet upward and created a half circle around them. As the two fighters countered each other back and forth so did their aura's and this fight turned to a pure struggle of demonic power.

The ground cracked and broke beneath them as the power emanating from the struggle took its toll on their surroundings.

The White Dragons all watched in horror and the Black Demons watched in triumph and amazement as Venom began to overpower Brian and his aura began to consume his opponents. Venoms blood-red aura was suddenly sucked into the palm of his hand and he roared as he shot Brian backwards with an explosion of demonic energy.

Brian skid to a stop and Venom knelt down on one knee and placed his fist on the ground in order to brace himself. Brian struggled to force himself from the ground and bring himself back to his feet as Venom panted heavily, both of them still trying to recover from all the energy they had just exerted.

Brian forced himself onto his feet and continued to pant heavily as he stared down at his opponent from across the room. He took a deep breath, held it, and then exhaled, pushing all the air from his lungs in order to regain control over his breathing. "Its time to end this." he exclaimed very matter-of-factly. He then held both his palms open about a foot away from his waist and a small golden orb formed in both of them.

Venom watches this action as he got back on his feet. He drew the katana at his side, scraped it across the floor in front of him, and drug it to his right side. "You never give up do you? Face it Brian, its over." he chuckled ominously. "You gave it all you had and I just wasn't enough. Face the facts, you have lost." he pointed his sword towards his opponent as he spoke but Brian did not budge, he merely gave a cocky half smile and glared at him with a smug arrogance that wiped the smile from Venom's face.

"Your right about one thing, I never give up," the orbs in his hands suddenly tripled in size and the golden, spiky, aura shot out of his body and flared upward as his face twisted into a disturbing smile that went from ear to ear and still carried the same amount of cocky arrogance as before. "And I'm not about to start now!" he screamed ferociously and the positive energy was sucked from the air, causing the orbs to grow a few inches in diameter.

Zach looked back and forth between the two with a look of shock and amazement plastered across his face. The look suddenly turned to pure surprise when he saw something he had never seen before deep within Venom's eyes as he let his arm and the sword lower back to the ground. It was mix of fear and remembrance. As if he was lost deep in a terrible dream. 'Venom has proven himself to be a very skilled and smart fighter, so why isn't he trying to stop an attack that could easily kill him?' Zach was suddenly ripped from his thoughts by Brian concentrating the energy balls into the size of marbles.

"DIE!" Brian roared as he slammed his two palms at the wrist, and the energy orbs, together, forcing the two orbs into an enormous golden ray that shot straight at Venom, ready to consume his entire body.

Venom spun his sword in his hand, slammed it into the ground and reinforced it by placing his left forearm against the dull side of the blade as he knelt down and lowered his head in order to get his whole body behind the cover of the blade. Directly after getting behind his sword the beam consumed him entirely causing all the inhabitance of the room to lose site of Venom's small form.

After several seconds of blasting the powerful beam of energy, Brian finally ran out of power and dropped his hands. The beam ceased, to reveal a cloud of smoke where Venom used to be and an accomplished smile crossed Brian's face. "I did it." he said in between gasps of air as he dropped to his knees, "I finally did it, I've won." all the Black Demon's watched in horror as no trace of they're leader was appearing as the smoke faded away. The White Dragons, on the other hand, were all smiling from ear to ear and silently rejoicing in they're own minds, but they all still watched the smoke in uncertainty. They were not sure if an evil so great could be destroyed so easily.

'Is it over' and 'can he really be gone' were just some of the thoughts running through everyone's heads as they watched the cloud of smoke slowly dissipate. Brian was the only one convinced that he had killed his adversary once and for all. He began to chuckle loudly as the joy of accomplishment rushed over his body.

Brian's laugh faded along with his smile as a shadow began to appear in the dark smoke. "No, it can't be, It just can't be!" he said in disbelief. The Black Demons gained new life while the White Dragons joy fade, along with the smoke, as they watched the shadow become even clearer. As the last of the dark cloud disappeared into the air Venom's kneeling form was revealed.

Venom lifted his head and stared down at Brian with nothing but hate in his eyes. He reversed the position of his hand and slowly brought himself to his feet. He pulled the sword from the ground and began to look at the third degree burns on his arms.

'The sword didn't protect me completely' Venom thought as he watched the scorched flesh begin to quickly repair itself. 'My left arm, from the elbow up to the shoulder and all of my right arm, again, all the way to the shoulder; Well, the part that was facing the blast any way's.' he smiled inwardly in surprise 'I guess he has gotten better.' His focus was pulled away, from watching his skin repair itself, to all the faces that were fixed upon him in disbelief. He looked around the room, examining all the faces that surrounded him. "What the hell are you all looking at," he asked coldly. "And when did I tell my demons to stop fighting?" all the Black Demons were ripped from their trances and they again faced their opponents. Venom then turned his attention back to Brian. His mouth was still wide open, as he still did not completely believe his own eyes. "Why the surprised look, did you honestly think you could kill me with that weak attack?" he asked his opponent.

"H-how did you survive that blast? It should have obliterated you completely, there's no way you could survive that attack, I've obliterated entire buildings with that same move. Its just not possible." he explained with terror and shock in his voice.

"Neither is a five foot two, one hundred and twenty five pound man lifting a one ton truck, but I've done that plenty of times."

"But, how did you survive that much power being shot at you all at once? It should have incinerated your entire body instantly, with ease." he screamed in a hysterical rage.

"Well, if you must know, it's my sword. Without it, I would be dead right now." Venom explained as him and Brian both examined the small katana. "You see, this sword was created by the chains and shackles of hell being melted down and forged into this blade, and the cloth that surrounds the handle was sown from the flesh of the fallen angels. It cancels out any demonic powers used against it and increases the demonic power of its user. It was able to cut your blast right in half as it flowed over its blade, and protect me."

"So that's how you can beat me so easily," Brian thought aloud with a newly formed, confident, smile on his face. "That sword gives you more power." ideas on how to get the sword out of Venom's hands began racing through his mind.

"Actually, the whole time I was fighting you, I never taped into its power once. It would have started glowing red if I had. Now if you don't mind," Venom got into a running stance and held his sword with his blade facing behind him. "I'd like to get this over with. The only reason I even explained that to you in the first place is that I counted it as your last request before you die."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. I will not be the one to die this day." Brian stated as he got back to his feet and placed his hands in the same position as when he charged the beam. He tried gathering energy but he barely had enough stamina and power to create an energy orb. Venom cocked his head in confusion and got out of his stance then chuckled sinisterly. He began walking slowly toward Brian with a dark smile forming under his mask. Brian then focused on putting as much energy into his right arm but, again, could barely form a marble sized ball. 'Its no use' he thought 'I've already sucked all the positive energy from the air and If I use any more from my muscles I wont have any energy what-so-ever and I could become unconscious, or worse.' he looked up at his approaching adversary and a deep anger and terrible hatred grew within him. 'I have to try.' he suddenly began to draw the energy from his body. The ball grew slowly in his hands as he drew the power from every muscle in his body. Once the ball had drained all the energy from his body, he chunked it at Venom and fell to his hands and knees in exhaustion. Venom merely sliced the orb straight in half and it created a small explosion of smoke.

Venom emerged from the smoke as if he had not even been touched, he just kept walking slowly toward Brian until he was in arms reach of him. Brian got off his hands and threw a punch up at him. Venom caught the fist and threw it to the side then punched Brian with a powerful hit to his face that sent him flying backwards. Brian hit the ground hard and rolled a few feet. He placed his hands on the ground and tried to get up, but before he could even drag himself to his knees, Venom grabbed him by his hair and pulled him up to his own eye level.

"Goodbye, Brian" Brian could barely hear something in Venom's voice as he spoke, something he did not expect, it was remorse. Venom then placed the tip of his blade barely touching the bottom of his chin and got ready to thrust the sword upward.

"That was awesome!" Kristen yelled aloud as Zach shot a lightning bolt at Joey and knocked him on his back. Venom's crimson eyes were suddenly pulled away from Brian and right on Kristen. He dropped Brian immediately and began running straight for her.

"Kristen, no!!!" Zach screamed as he watched Venom run at his love with his sword reared back, ready to swing. Zach shot a lightning bolt at him right before Joey grabbed him and threw him to the ground. Venom merely jumped back before the lightning bolt even hit where he was going to be. He then jumped to the side and again lunged straight at the young woman standing petrified with fear before him. He landed, on one foot, right in front of her and placed his left hand on her shoulder.

"Goodbye, Kristen" Venom whispered into her ear as he plunged his katana into her stomach right through her back. Her body fell limp and her head rested on his shoulder. "Now get off my sword!" Venom yelled ferociously as he shot her off of his blade by pushing her hard with his left hand.

"KRISTEN NOOOOO!!!!" Zach screamed and knocked Joey out of the way so he could run to his love that had just rolled to a stop on the cold hard castle floor. He ran toward his fallen wife with fear in his eyes and tears rolling down his cheeks. He scooped her up from the ground and held her cold and barely breathing body close to his.

"Z-Zach I …. I" she coughed out, along with a mouthful of blood. Zach silenced her by pressing one finger to her lips.

"Shh, I know baby, I love you too. Just don't speak, conserve your energy." Zach pleaded through tears.

"I… I'm sorry" Kristen managed to spit out right before her hand, which rested softly on Zach's cheek, fell to the ground and the cold lifelessness of death appeared deep in her eyes.

"Kristen, please don't die." he cried out as all the warmth faded from her eyes and her face grew pale and lifeless. "Kristen? Kristen!? KRISTEN!!!" he called out as the sky grew black and lightning began flashing wildly in the sky. Zach pressed her face against his chest as he sobbed heavily on the top of her head. He barely heard Venom walking toward Brian, who lay unconscious on the ground, and the agony in his heart suddenly transformed into a horrible rage. His body began to pulsate with electricity. He placed Kristen's body softly on the ground, brought himself to his feet and stared daggers at Venom. Zach then asked the only question on his mind with more anger and rage tainting his voice than ever before…. "Why?"

Venom stopped advancing on Brian and turned toward the source of the enormous demonic power he was sensing. "Why? Well, it is the rules of the battlefield. She stepped on to the battlefield and made herself known so she became part of the battle, it's the rules of the battlefield." he explained, very casually.

Zach's eyes began to glow vibrantly in a heavenly white color and electricity began swirling around his body. The sky's grew pitch black and the violent flashes of lighting became the only source of light outside as the clouds began to gather around the highest tower of the castle, circling it ominously. The ground began to crack beneath him as the lightning pulsing from him became much more violent and his rage grew to it's peak.

Venom's eye's widened as his fear grew. "Oh no," he exclaimed with a quiver in his voice as watched Zach's power reach a 9.5. "RETREAT!!!!" he screamed as he began fleeing quickly from the castle. The rest of the Black Demon's looked at each other then back at Zach, then took Venom's advice and began to flee as well. All the White Dragon's did nothing to stop them as they were entranced and frightened by Zach's rage and power.

Zach extended his arm and opened his palm. Three streams of electricity shot out and wrapped around his uncle's war hammer. The hammer was pulled to his hand and Zach slammed the long handle into his palm so he could hold it with both hands as he ran. With that, he began running extremely quickly. As soon as he reached the outside of his huge double doors, he leaped into the air, shooting into the clouds, and out of sight.

Venom was still running for his life through the thick forest but, even while running at his top speed of seventy-five miles per hour, the other members of his group were miles ahead of him. He could sense an immense power advancing rapidly upon him.

Zach broke through the dark clouds and the white aura began to flare upward. His eyes seemed to zoom in to the forest to see his opponent still fleeing from him. When he got close enough to the ground, he lifted his hammer, ready to strike. Venom looked back to see his opponent falling rapidly to the ground, he was about to hit almost a mile away.

"Good," Venom thought aloud "there is no way the attack could hit me from there." he stopped running from his opponent and began to watch as Zach fell to the ground.

Just before Zach hit the ground, His white aura suddenly shot into the top of the war hammer, along with all his power, causing it to glow vibrantly. As soon as his feet barely touched the ground his hammer slammed against it and an explosion of pure electronic power erupted from the end of the hammer. Venom watched in horror as the explosion advanced upon him at an intense speed, disintegrating everything in its path. He turned back around and began jumping from tree to tree as fast as he could. He looked back as he flew through the air just in time to see the explosion swallow him from behind and began to rip away at his flesh. Three lighting bolts hit his back as his entire body was consumed by the great power that was being emitted from the hammer's power.

Joey stopped flying away and glanced back to see the huge explosion just as it was receding and it faded away. He tuned around and began flying toward the source. He stopped in the middle of the huge crater just in time to see Zach collapse from pure exhaustion. He dropped down and landed next to him. A small gun popped out of the top of his arm and he pointed it straight at Zach's face.

"Don't you dare!" a fierce voice came from behind him just as he was about to shoot the firearm. Joey turned to see his leader limping toward him. "If you pull that trigger I'll make sure your death is more painful than you could ever imagine."

"But, master, we have him right where we want him." Joey asked in confusion.

"Just because he does not abide by the rules of the battlefield does not mean we won't" he explained as he limped over to the both of them. "I live by the way of the sword, a life of honor, and I will not break my code of ethics just because it's easier that way. No, if I am destined to kill him, then I will do it on the battlefield, so that he may die an honorable death. Not the death of a common peasant." he sneered as he looked down at his fallen enemy. "Now, I am weakened by his attack so I'm going to need you to carry me back to the base."

Joey was about to say something but he stopped himself, fearing a deadly strike from his master. "Yes, master." he agreed and turned around so that Venom may climb on his back. He climbed on and Joey turned on the jets in his feet and began to fly away.

Venom watched as William ran toward the crater, in which Zach lie motionless, at an impressive speed. His vision began to blur as he watched William pluck Zach from off the ground. Venom's vision faded into blackness and he lost consciousness as him and Joey faded into the distance, far beyond William's line of site.


	7. Black Clouds

The white dragons awake to a loud and thunderous boom in the middle of the night. They all jumped out of bed and ran outside, expecting to meet the black demons in combat. Jessy, William and Brian all exit the front doors at the same time to find nothing but a pile of burning rubble in the middle of the yard. They scanned the area but saw nothing but a dark figure standing a few feet away from the fire.

"Who's there?" Brian yelled at the figure standing in the shadows, but got no reply.

The large figure began advancing upon them very slowly.

Brian created a ball of energy in his hands, "Stop or I'll shoot." he demanded. The figure did not reply and continued to advance. Brian increased the size of the orb and got ready to throw it.

The figure stepped into the golden light of the orb to reveal a shirtless man with long snow white hair. "Shouldn't you all be in bed?" the man asked in a familiar voice. The man's long white hair cept his face hidden in the shadows, but something about his voice sounded familiar.

"Zach?" Brian questioned as he held the ball closer to the mans face. The man looked up to reveiel Zach's scowling face. Brian immediately released the ball and the energy faded into the air. "Oh my god, you scared me." he laughed as he clutched his chest to feel his heart racing. Zach did not reply.

"What are you doing out here?" Jessy asked.

"Training." he replied coldly

"For what?"

"What do you think?" with that he turned away and began walking toward the fire.

"What happened to you hair?"

"I'm not sure, the intensity of the lightning must have fucked with the pigments in my hair and drained it of all its spring so it straightened out and turned white." he explained.

"Well, its late, so get some sleep. You can train all day tomorrow." she yawned.

"No."

"I think she's right, Zach. You should get some rest, you never know when they could attach and you need to be well rested or all the training you do will be for nothing."

"I said, no." he replied with a hint of agitation in his voice.

"But, Zach…." Jessy began.

"**I said NO**!" he screamed and lightning struck the ground right in front of Jessy and she jumped backwards.

"Hey!" William yelled. "I know your upset, but that is no reason to snap at her. If that lightning would have hit her she could have died. You need to control yourself, buddy."

"And what if I don't!?" Zach replied in anger and stepped closer to William, getting as close to his face as he could without actually touching him "buddy!".

William just chuckled a little and stepped back. He turned around as if he was about to walk away but then quickly spun back around and threw a right hook into Zach's jaw that knocked him flat on his back.

"I suggest you calm down, before this gets ugly." William said with a smile as he reached down, offering Zach a helping hand. "Now come on, lets go inside and get something strong to drink."

Zach wiped the blood off his lip with the back of his hand and looked up at William with hate in his eyes. His face suddenly changed as he put a smile on his face. "your right, William," he said as he grabbed William's hand "I don't know what came over me." he said with malice in his voice and his smile suddenly twisted into something wicked and sinister. Before William could pull his hand away Zach sent an enormous amount of electricity coursing through William's body.

William let out a scream as the electricity surged through his body. Zach then stopped the flow of electricity and let go of William's hand, which sent him flying backwards into the wall.

"What the hell Zach?" Brian yelled at him as Zach brought himself to his feet. "You could have killed him!"

"That was the point." he sneered.

"Why would you do that?" Jessy screamed in horror.

"He's always trying to boss me around and run my life! He thinks he is better than everyone else, the cocky bastard, and ever since he first met Kristen he hated her. He was always putting her down or putting me down for being in love with her and now after all this time he is still trying to boss me around and I'm tired of it."

William started chuckling as he stood up. "So, that's how its gonna be, huh?" he stopped laughing and gave Zach an extremely serious look. "Well, if you want to kill me…" William lifted his fists in front of his face and spread his legs to get into his battle stance. "then take your best shot!"

"My pleasure" Zach replied in a satisfied and exited tone.

Brian stepped between them and looking at Zach straight in the eyes. "Zach, this is crazy, this isn't you."

"Move Brian." Zach sneered through his teeth.

"Do it." William demanded.

"But, William this…" Brian began.

"Don't argue, if he wants a fight I'll give him a fight." Brian opened his mouth to say something but William just glared at him. "just move." Brian wanted to argue but he knew there was nothing he cold do so he complied and he stepped down. William and Zach glared at each other for a moment before either of them even moved. The night was silent and still and the light of the full moon cast an ominous shadow on all four of them.

"RAGH!" Zach roared as he shot a bolt of lightning at William. William mearly side-stepped it and began running straight for Zach, Zach reacted by charging lightning in his fist but before he could even gather a descent charge William was already within striking distance of him. William delivered an extremely powerful punch that knocked Zach back a few feet then he uppercut him and followed Zach into the air so he could knock him back down.

Zach hit the ground hard, but before he could get back up William picked him up by the back of his throught and punched him hard in his stomach. He let him drop so that he could punch him into the air once again, but before Zach could fly out of reach William grabbed his foot and slammed him down on his back and then picked him up again and threw him into the ground, causing Zach to skid across the hard earth and make a large indent where he stopped. This action left Zach seemingly unconscious.

Brian and Jessy stared wide-eyed at the brutal display of power William just put off on Zach's body.

"Now, lets take him to his bed and let him get some rest." just as William began to walk over to his friend Zach jumped up and shot a powerful bolt of electricity into his face. William grabbed at his eyes and Zach charged at him with lightning swirling around his fist. Zach hit him hard in the stomach and it sent William staggering backwards. Zach charged both his arms full of electricity and began beating him mercilessly, the electricity surging through Williams body fiercely with every blow. Zach stepped back and began shocking William with three bolts of lightning and he began buckling under the pain. William suddenly stood up and began walking towards Zach with no intension of letting anything slow him down. Zach jumped over William and landed a few hundred yards away.

Zach began to focus on the clouds and all the raw power that they contained. William watched as the clouds above grew dark and began circling directly above his head. Zach's eyes began to glow as a tunnel formed in the clouds directly above Williams head. Suddenly, an enormous bolt of lighting struck William and he let out a terrible scream of pain. He looked up at the tunnel in the clouds and realized that Zach was using it like a cannon to focus huge blots of lighting on top of him. Before William could move a gigantic lightning bolt came down and consumed him, creating a large crater where William was standing. Before William's smoking and burnt body could recover another bolt came down and another and another until there was no trace of William in sight.

"William!" Jessy screamed. "Zach, how could you?" she called out with tears rolling down her face. Zach did not reply he mearly stared at the crater, not believing for a second that William had perished. William suddenly shot out of the ground and into the air, landing just a few feet away from the crater.

Zach then moved the hole in the clouds above his own body and held his open palm up towards the sky. "Ok William, lets see if you can survive this." The giant lightning bolts, that were focused on William, began striking Zach in a continuous stream of electricity and a large half circle shape of electricity began swirling around Zach. The lightning stopped and the clouds dissipated, but the orb of lightning continued growing and William began running forward into it. Before William got to the gigantic orb Zach sucked all the electricity into his body and his eyes and his body began to glow blood-red. "This ends now!" Zach screamed as he brought down his hand and a glowing ball of crimson electricity formed in his palm. He grabbed his wrist and braced himself as he screamed "Go to hell!"

"You want me to go to hell? Well then," William yelled and got into a running stance. "SEND ME THERE!!!" he roared as he ran at an incredible speed straight at Zach.

Zach screamed as he released a crimson lightning bolt that shot straight at William. It hit William but he didn't stop, merely slowed down. The lightning bolt was focused on his chest and William sneered in pain as it riped apart the skin at the point of contact. Zach suddenly roared as his canine teeth grew and sharpened to a fine point and his muscles pulsed with power. Zach then put even more power into the lightning and William slowed to a stop about a hundred yards away from him.

William dropped to one knee as the lightning surged threw his body like poison. He slamed his fist into the ground and closed his eyes. He began to sway, as if he was about to pass out and a venomous smile formed across Zach's face. William suddenly began to glow with the same crimson red aura as Zach's and he dragged himself to his feet and began to shake violently.

"RAAAAAAGH!!!!" William screamed as his eyes shot open, glowing vibrantly in the same manner as Zach's, and his aura shined brighter. Zach increased the power even more and his smile grew wider.

"Face it William, your threw." Zach called out to the beast of a man that stood before him.

William smiled in a cocky manner "Juggernaut: a crushing force:a force that is relentlessly destructive, crushing, and indestructible." he yelled; his voice was much deeper darker and much more sinister than it had ever been before.

"What?" Zach questioned as his lightning suddenly started being pushed backwards by William's aura so Zach just used all the power he could possibly gather and concentrated it all into the lightning and it pushed Williams aura back once again.

"I am invincible, I am unstoppable," the earth began to shake violently and crak under William. The earth's violent vibration almost knocked Zach to the ground but he kept his balance and stood his ground. William's aura suddenly formed a large orb around his body and the lightning couldn't pierce it. "I…. am….." he whispered in between deep, heavy, breaths "A JUGGERNAUGHT!!!!!" he screamed as his aura exploded and shot Zach backwards and threw him into the dirt.

Zach staggered up to his feet. His body had completely turned to normal again, his eyes and his body had stopped glowing, his teeth returned to normal and his muscles shrank back to their normal size. He watched the smoke clear slowly as Williams large from began to become visible threw the smoke. Zach tried to charge a lighting bolt in his hands but he had already sucked all the electricity out of the air and his body. He watched with hate and fear in his eyes as William's form began to advance upon him. He grabbed his arm and winced from the throbbing pain and watched as William walked out of the cloud, straight for him. William stopped in arms length and glared down at Zach.

"What now William, are you going to kill me?" Zach growled.

"No. Your going to get some rest whether you like it or not." William replied said coldly. Zach growled in protest as he threw his fist at Williams face. William caught it then punched Zach hard in the face, knocking him unconscious. William picked Zach up by his arm and carried him inside and Brian and Jessy followed close behind. William got half way to the living room before he collapsed . Brian caught the both of them before they had a chance to hit the ground. Brian set them both down on the ground gently and carried them both on his shoulders to their individual beds.

"So, what's going to happen now?" Jessy asked quietly.

"I'm not sure." he replied as he looked down into the beautiful combination of colors that made up her iris. "We will just have to wait until they wake up and find out then." he could see the tears welling up in her eyes and he aloud a warm, comforting smile, cross his face. "don't worry about it, Jessy, we have made it through harder times than this and we made it threw somehow." he reached out his arms and gave her a comforting hug then lifted her chin with his finger. "It will be fine, now get some rest." with that, he let her go and they each walked toward their individual rooms.

Jessy stopped at her door and watched Brian as he stepped into his own room. He suddenly looked different to her. She realized that he was no longer the immature boy she once knew, he had grown up and became a man, a good man, and almost different person than before. She liked the way he looked right then and she suddenly got a feeling that maybe it wasn't over between them. Jessy shook the thoughts out of her head, walked into her room and closed the door behind her. She jumped onto her bed and slowly drifted off to sleep. Brian, and what he had become, was the only thing on her mind as she fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

It was the five o'clock PM and William had just woken up to find Jessy and Brian sitting in the living room in silence. They both turned their heads and looked up at him.

William looked towards Zach's room with a worried look on his face. "Has he come out yet?" he asked sadly.

"No, he hasn't. I'm not even sure he is still in there, he could have woken up and sneaked out for all we know." Brian answered.

"I feel sorry for the guy." William said. "The love of his life was killed by a sadistic maniac and now he is blaming himself and those around him."

"I don't know if I could handle loosing another person that close to me." Jessy added.

"I wish there was something we could do for the guy." Brian looked up at William as he spoke.

"There isn't much we can do." William replied.

"Except for trying to kill me, right?" Zach called out coldly from his position at his doorway.

"Zach!" Jessy yelled excitedly. She then looked around the room and realized that no one shared her excitement.

"Try to kill you?" William replied. "You almost hit Jessy with a bolt of lighting when she tried to help you, then you tried to kill me, and almost succeeded, and know your saying that I tried to kill you!" he raised his voice in anger. He suddenly ripped off his t-shirt to reveal a large burn mark in the middle of his chest. "Do you see what you did to me?" he raised his voice even higher. "You have never been able to put more than a scratch on me, and last night you gave me third degree burns. You had to be trying real hard to hurt me to do that, in case you don't remember." Zach did not reply. William lowered his voice and softened his tone. "Your going threw a lot right now." he walked over to Zach and placed his hand on his shoulder. Zach continued to stare at the ground. "You're like a brother to me and brothers have to stick together . I'm going do my best to help you threw this, but until then, you're gonna have to trust me."

Zach looked up at William with a look of contempt in his eyes and pushed his hand off of his shoulder. "Get out." Zach told him with hate in his voice.

William kinda chuckled a little in disbelief. "what do you mean, "Get out"?"

"You heard me." Zach answered keeping his eye's on the ground.

"Zach, you cant be serious." Jessy pleaded.

"Ya, Zach you're not thinking straight just stop and…." Brain began.

"If you're with him then you're against me," Zach screamed. "and you can go with him!"

Jessy walked over to him and placed her hand on his back. "Zach, you're…

"GO!" he screamed and turned around, knocking Jessy to the ground with a hard slap to the face as he did so.

"Hey!" Brain screamed and threw Zach against the wall. "don't you ever lay a hand on her or I swear to god…"

"What, Brian?" Zach interrupted as he knocked Brian's hands off of his shirt. "What are you gonna do, huh? You gonna run away again, or do you think you could be a man this time and actually stay and face your problems?"

Brian reared his fist back but something stopped him from striking Zach. He looked back to see William holding his wrist.

"Brian, don't." William said sternly.

"But, he…"

"Brian, if he wants us out of his life than there is nothing we can do about it." he released Brian's hand and helped Jessy to her feet. "lets go."

For the next few hours the three packed there things in silence as Zach staid in his room. William was the first to walk out, carrying only two bags. Then came Brian, who only brought a large suit case full of clothes. Jessy was last, she carried two large bags and three smaller ones. William and Brian helped her carry her bags out the door and into the cab.

Zach watched from his tower as the three got into the cab and drove away. He walked down into the empty living room, takeing in all that just happened. It finally hit him and right then he realized, he was alone and it was all his fault.


	8. The Mask Comes Off

The door flung open to reveal the Black Demons standing in the doorway. They scanned the room to find a seemingly empty castle.

"Where are they?" Joey asked as he looked around the empty room.

"Not here, obviously." Jackie laughed sarcastically.

"Hey, shut-up, flamer."

"Computer geek."

"Fagot!"

"Retard!"

"Shut-up!" Venom yelled, looking back at them with fearsome eye's, the two immediately stopped talking and bowed their heads as if they two were kids who were being lectured by a parent. He looked around the room, looking for any signs of life. Venom sniffed the air. "We are not alone." he informed his team as he kept his eye's focused on a dark hallway directly in front of him. "Where is the rest of the White Dragons, Zach?"

"Don't worry about them." Zach said dolefully as he stepped into the light.

"Whoa, I like the hair." Niki called out. Zach didn't even look at her. He kept his gaze focused on Venom with deep hatred in his glazed and blood-shot eye's"

"All you need to worry about is me and you." Zach spoke with only one thing on his mind, revenge. "Fight me, one-on-one. No one else to distract us, only you and me in a fight to the death."

"And what is stopping me from just having my entire team attack you and ending this quickly so that I can go and find the rest of your friends and dispose of them?" Venom crossed his arms in defiance and stared down at him from his position at the top of the stairs with a golden gleam in his eye's.

"You said that you lived by the sword, the life of honor, well this is an honorable battle to the death. Two men begin and one man ends, that is the way of the sword." Zach stared up at him, hoping his plan would work.

"Come on, lets kill this asshole." Jackie said as his hair caught fire and he took a step down from the stairs.

"Halt" Venom demanded. Jackie did as he was told, stepped backwards and his hair returned to normal. Venom threw off his over-coat and untied his belt, placing his sword and sheath down on top of his coat. "You want a fight to the death," Venom got into his battle stance and looked Zach in the eye's "then let us begin."

With that, Zach charged at Venom with electricity pulsing around his fists. Zach jumped in the air and threw down a bolt of lightning but Venom mearly side-stepped it and jumped backwards. The second Zach touched the ground he shot straight for Venom and began throwing punches wildly at him but he was dodging and side-stepping all of them with ease. Venom suddenly punched Zach hard in the face and followed with an even harder hit to his stomach then jumped in the air to give him a hard kick to the side of his mouth that knocked him on the ground. Zach jumped up and charged at him again while screaming a loud battle cry. Venom jumped over him and kicked him in the back again as Zach ran under him, causing him to lose balance and fall hard on his face.

Venom landed with grace and stared down at Zach. "Just face it, you cant win." Venom watched as Zach dragged himself to his feet and charged at him once again. Venom did the same thing as before and just dodged all of Zach's wild fists with little effort. Venom finally side-stepped one of his punches and Zach lost his balance and hit the ground. "Do you honestly think you can beat me?" Zach did not reply, he only pulled himself back to his feet and began shooting lightning bolts at Venom. Venom began running at Zach, jumping to the left and right to dodge the random bolts lightning. He jumped into the air, donkey kicked off of Zach's face and did a flip in the air, only to land and charge at Zach with a barrage of punches. Venom ended the barrage of fists with an uppercut to the chin then a kick to the stomach that sent Zach flying back into the ground. "Come on Zach, your slower than me and it looks as if you haven't been getting much sleep so your even more sluggish than usual. Besides, even if you do somehow manage to beat me, my team wont just let you walk out of here alive." Zach staid on the ground, panting and sweating heavily. "Just give up you cant win."

"I don't care if I live or die here today." Zach managed to spit out between breaths as he dragged himself to his feet. He spit some blood out of his mouth and continued. "As long as I kill you!" he screamed as he shot a powerfull lightning bolt at Venom, who merely moved his body out off the way and looked back at the lightning as it shot threw the wall behind him. As soon as Venom turned his head back to Zach he punched Venom hard in the face and began unleashing a powerful barrage of fists that knocked Venom back and into the wall. Before Zach could punch again Venom ducked and jumped upwards, punching Zach hard in the chin. He landed directly behind him and, before Zach could fall backwards, Venom jumped up and kneed the back of his head and then fell down to eye level with Zach to deliver a spin kick to Zach's cheek. As Zach staggered backwards, trying to regain his footing, Venom jumped just within arms length of him then side-stepped before Zach had a chance to react and punched him hard in the face. Zach fell to the ground and slid a little on his side.

"You've got a lot of heart, I will give you that." Venom told Zach as he watched him try, in vain to get back up. "I'll tell you what, because I like your spirit, I'll give you one last chance to join me." Venom kneeled down on one knee in order to get eye level with his opponent. "Think about it, you will have women, money, and best of all, more power than you could ever imagine. Look at The Inferno, before I came along he could barely control sparks and now he has more control over fire than he knows what to do with. Speaking of Inferno, did you know that he has a book of demonic spells, and I think there might even be a resurrection spell or two in there." Zach suddenly looked up at Venom with hate in his eye's "We may be able to bring her back, you know. All you have to do is join us and you can rule the entire world with Kristen back by your side." Venom stood up and offered a helping hand down at Zach. "What do you say, Zach, do we have a deal."

Zach staggered back to his feet, looking down at Venom as the hate in his eye's grew to a passionate flame inside of him which showed vibrantly in his voice as he spoke. "I would never join you, not for anything in the world. Even if you could bring Kristen back, she wouldn't want to live in a world ruled by a tyrant and neither do I."

"Zach, what do you have to lose, your wife is dead, this castle cant take much more of these brutal battles and all your friends have deserted you. Face it, you have nothing to live for…" Venom smiled under his mask as he watched the hatred in Zach's eyes be replaced with great sadness. "…your completely alone."

"That is where your wrong." a voice boomed from the door way.

The entire room turned to see William standing at the door with Jessy and Brian standing right behind him. Zach's face lit up, and Venom's eye's darkened with animosity.

"He may be an asshole, and an ugly son of a bitch at that, but he will never be alone, not as long as I'm alive." William called out.

"Demons!" Venom called, "destroy them!" with that the Black Demons jumped toward the trio and began to battle fiercly. Venom turned back to face Zach but his cheek met with Zach's fist which sent him flying backwards and into the ground. Venom jumped to his feet to see a revitalized Zach surging with electricity. Zach ran at Venom, his muscles charged with electricity to give him increased speed and began punching at him with much more accuracy and precision than he had had before but Venom was still dodging them. Venom suddenly side-stepped a punch and flung one of his own but, to his surprise, Zach pulled his face out of the way just in time to dodge the attach and cause Venom to lose his balance. Zach took the opportunity and punched Venom hard in the stomach and lifted him into the air so that he could slam him back into the ground. Zach then picked Venom up by the back of his shirt and placed his hand on his chest, sending a huge charge of electricity into his body which shot him into the air. Zach pursued his opponent into the air and shot him with a bolt of lightning that slammed Venom back into the ground then forced electricity out of the ground to bring Venom right back up so that he could punch him into the wall. Venom fell from the wall toward the ground but was hit with several bolts of lightning before he finally met the ground. As Venom brought himself to his hands and knees, Zach kicked him through the wall and into another room, Zach followed but couldn't see through the newly formed cloud of smoke. Zach suddenly started shooting random bolts of electricity from his body until he saw one of them make contact with a moving target, Zach shot the target to find that it was a vase that Venom had flung at him. Zach turned just in time to watch Venom's foot hit him right between the eye's. Zach let go of his pounding face to look around the empty room. Zach walked through the hole in the wall and looked around but saw no sign of Venom, only the battle raging on around him. Venom suddenly dropped from the wall behind Zach and jumped over him to deliver a devastatingly powerful kick to Zach's stomach, knocking the wind out him as he fell to the ground. As Zach tried to catch his breath Venom picked him from the ground by his hair and started punching him with a series of hard punches until he was backed into the opposite wall. Venom then kicked him in the chest, right through the wall, sending Zach rolling backwards. Venom jumped up and attempted to drop his foot down on Zach's head but he caught Venom's foot and threw him into the wall. Before Zach could even stand all the way up Venom was already punching him again until he was back in the main living room. Venom ended the punches with a hard palm to Zach's chest.

Zach stared up at Venom and heard him growl ominously threw the mask. That is when Zach realized that this man was an animal and he could not beaten with just his fists. He would have to use his mind along with his powers to win this fight. Zach stayed on the ground, knowing that it was against the way of the sword to strike an opponent while they are down, and focused on a plan of action. Zach stared at Venom with a burning intensity until everything began to blur. Suddenly everything in the room grew dark accept for the people. He looked around and noticed that everything in the room had a unique glow to them and he suddenly realized what was happening and he thought of a brilliant plan.

"Get up!" Venom demanded. Suddenly Zach's eye's began to glow white and Venom watched as everyone in the room, including himself, let out a small spark of electricity that Zach drew into his own body. "What the hell?" Venom asked as him and everyone else in the room watched Zach intently, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Zach suddenly jumped to his feet and his body began to glow with the same white light as his eye's.

"Guy's get over here!" Zach called out to all his friends as an orb of swirling electricity formed around his body. The White Dragons all three jumped over to him but stopped when they reached the edge of the orb. "Get in here!" he screamed. They looked at each other then back at the orb. "just trust me, it wont hurt you."

Brian and William suddenly remembered how hard he tried to kill William a few days ago and were reluctant to step in. Jessy suddenly closed her eye's and started to step into the orb.

"Jessy, stop!" they screamed simultaneously but it was to late, she was already inside it. The electricity began to strike her wildly but it had no affect. She looked back at the two of them with a comforting smile across her face. William and Brian took one last reluctant look at one another then closed their eye's and stepped in. The electricity was striking all three of them but it had no affect on any of them.

Venom looked at the orb suspiciously but before he could react Jackie ran straight for it. As soon as he stepped foot inside the orb he was shocked violently and shot backwards. Joey, Nikki, and Guy all burst out laughing while Venom continued to watch the orb.

"What is this?" Venom asked suspiciously, keeping his eye's on the orb.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Zach smiled arrogantly. "You see, everyone has a unique electronic signature and I've created an orb of electricity that focuses on electronic signatures. I gathered samples of everyone's electronic signatures and made sure that it distinguishes between all of us and all of you." the orb suddenly began to grow. "Now I suggest you leave before this orb consumes you and all of your team mates."

Venom jumped backwards and grabbed his sword, then he watched Zach struggle to increase the size of the orb. A sinister smile crossed his face as he watched the orb grow slowly.

"Stay here." Venom ordered as he began to walk towards the orb. The other members of his team suddenly stopped laughing and watched as their leader stopped right at the edge of the wall of electricity.

Zach looked at Venom with a gleam in his eye "Go ahead, I dare you." he said with a smile on his face.

The smile faded as Venom charged into the orb and the electricity began attacking him fiercely. Multiple streams of electricity wrapped around his body as the intensity of the pain brought him to his knees. Zach's face twisted into a look of horror as Venom stood back up and began walking slowly toward him. He was moving with his sword in front of his face like a shield but it was doing him no good so he threw it out of the orb and continued walking. Venom's shirt suddenly caught fire and he ripped it off and began moving faster.

The arrogant smile returned to Zach's face as he watched burn marks form on Venom's skin where the lightning was striking. Zach then abandoned the orb and concentrated on Venom's signature, but Venom just began to move faster. Venom got about five feet from him when his mask caught fire and he dropped to his knees as he struggled to get it off. He suddenly ripped of the burning mask and threw it into Zach's face. The electricity dissipated as he tried rip the burning mask from his face. As soon as the burning mask was off of his face and the singed hairs were put out he glared at Venom's now completely exposed face.

All four of The White Dragons stared at his face as Venom glared back. Venom bared his teeth to reveal extremely sharp canine's and ripped away his gloves to reveal his sharp claws that extended from his finger tips. Venom suddenly charged at Zach and began ripping away at Zach's flesh with his now exposed claws. Jessy reacted quickly by shooting a giant burst of wind that knocked him back into the wall.

The White Dragons continued staring at him, trying to figure out why he looked so familiar to all of them.

"What are you all staring at?" Venom growled. Even his voice sounded familiar without the mask on, it wasn't as deep and it didn't seem as evil and foreboding as before. "I'm not wearing my mask any more, so what." he stood up and glared at all of them and then looked at his team mates who where also staring at him in a confused manner. "What is everyone staring at, is it the scars, the dog tags around my neck, what is it?" he screamed out in frustration. "You want me to do a trick, here!" he held up his middle finger toward everyone in the room. "Ta-dah!"

"It cant be!" Zach rubbed his eye's and squinted, not believing what his own eye's were seeing. "It just cant be!"

"What?" Jessy asked confused.

"Ya, what?" Venom demanded.

Zach stared for another second or two before Brian answered the question for him.

"Travis!?" Brian asked, but as soon as he said it he was sure of it. Venom looked exactly like their good friend who was believed to had died five years ago.

Venom suddenly gave him the same bewildered look as he was receiving. "How do you know that name?"

"What do you mean how do we know that name!?" Brian screamed. "We grew up together, you were our friend!"

"What are you talking about?" Venom replied in confusion. "I've never seen any of you before a few months ago?"

"Liar!!" Brian screamed as his aura suddenly flared up and his eye's began to give of an ominous golden glow.

"There is no way that is Travis, its just some guy who looks like him." Jessy said, trying to convince herself more then anyone else.

"Look at him Jessy!!" Brian screamed down at her. The ground began to shake underneath his power as his rage grew. "TRAITOR!!!!" he screamed violently as his golden glow shifted to blood red along with his aura.

Venom watched as The White Dragons all became enraged and their power levels grew along with their rage. "Demon's attack!" he screamed down at them and they reacted. He jumped over to his sword and retied it to his waist but before he could act Brian had already knocked Jackie out of the way and was flying straight at him. Brian stopped just within arms reach and began swinging wildly at him. Venom had trouble dodging them as Brian's speed constantly increased. Brian finally landed a devastating punch to Venom's stomach and didn't stop punching until he hit a little to hard and knocked Venom into a wall. Brian pursued but Venom had already jumped to his feet and was able to dodge the first punch, grab Brian and slam him into the wall. Venom side-stepped just in time to dodge a lighting bolt to his back and then jumped into the air and off the wall. He spun to dodge another lightning bolt only to be slammed into the ground by a powerful gust of wind. Venom spiraled into the air to dodge an orb of energy but was caught by the force of the explosion and flung into the wall once again. Venom spun to bound off the wall and doge another ball of energy only to meet William in the air who punched him back to the stone floor beneath him. Before William could land with another attack Venom jumped backwards, only to meet a lightning bolt to the middle of his back. William then knocked him back into the air where he met Brian, who began striking him wildly before a fire ball hit Brian in the stomach. Instead of falling back to earth a huge blast of air bashed him against the ceiling and he managed to dodge a few lightning bolts as he fell before another blast of wind imbedded his body into the earth.

Venom pulled himself out of the ground to see Zach ready to strike him again but Joey jumped in between them and punched Zach hard in the face. Zach recovered quickly and returned the punch, but much harder and followed with a crushing kick to his chest, that dented Joey's metallic rib cage into his body and sent him flying backwards. Venom watched as Joey staggered slowly back to his feet then venom had to jump out of the way of, yet another, golden orb. He landed gracefully a few feet away just to see Brian and William charging at him but a giant wall of earth shot up between them. Brian flew over the wall and continued to fly at Venom until Jackie jumped in front of him and punched him hard in the face with a fist full of white fire. Brain stopped himself in mid air and shot back at Jackie and pummeled him with a series of shattering punches that ended with him uppercuting Jackie into the air only to see Venom punch Brian down into the ground. Venom then jumped up and kicked William in the face to stop his charge and delivered a spin kick before falling back to the ground. Venom jumped up, uppercuting William hard, but before he could come down on him with a bone-crushing kick, he was struck by lightning and shot out of the air. Venom rolled on the ground until he threw himself back into the air and spun to dodge another lighting bolt and spiraled downward with a kick to knock the energy orb back at Brian. Before Venom could fling the orb he had just caught at Zach another huge gust of wind slammed him into the ceiling and the second ball that Brian had thrown exploded in his hand.

As Venom fell to the ground he watched as Joey tried in vain to fight Zach with the gigantic dent in his chest, Nikki had been knocked out by William after she tried to freeze his feet and Jackie and guy were both showing great fatigue from trying to stop four different enemy's almost single-handedly. Venom then landed on the ground and quickly searched his mind to try and devise a plan.

"We cant win like this." Venom thought aloud as he watched Guy get knocked to the ground and struggle to pull himself to his feet while pulling up chunks of earth to buy himself some time. "That's it!" he thought aloud once again as he stared down at his sword and it suddenly began to glow a bright crimson red color. Venom's face twisted into a painful growl as his body began to glow with the same crimson red as his sword. His eye's shot open to reveal the ominous blood-red glow as he bared his teeth and his fists opened up to show his growing claws. His fingers curled, his body tensed up, his muscles grew, and the ominous glow became even more vibrant as the power of the demonic blade surged threw his body. Venom's teeth all suddenly sharpened to a fine point and his claws grew longer as he let out a thunderous roar that caught the attention of everyone in the room. "RAGH!!!" the ground shook beneath the power of his fierce roar as his aura shot upward and red lighting began to arc off of his body.

"Your in for it now." Guy smirked, looking back at Zach who was standing right behind him. "Its time for you to find out why they call us the Black Demons." he then looked back up at Venom who was grabbing his pounding skull with both hands and screaming in agony.

Venom suddenly stopped screaming and dug his claws into his own scalp tying to find some relief from the pain. He clenched his fist and began shaking violently as his aura shrank and his entire body began to glow bright red. His muscles pulsed and grew as the glow became more vibrant.

"What's happening to him?" Jessy asked as she watched the frightening transformation.

"He is drawing power from his sword and its manipulating his body to make it more suitable for the raw power that the sword can offer." Jackie explained as they all stared up at Venom in amazement. "it's a marvelous thing to behold." he looked down at Jessy and smiled darkly "if it wasn't the last thing you where going to see, that is."

Jessy shot him a dirty look and then continued to watch Venom.

Venom suddenly clutched his fists together and roared as he slammed them on the ground, creating a large explosion of red demonic energy. The entire room shielded their eye's from the blinding light and the debris from the explosion and then watched as the smoke began to clear. Venoms shaded form appeared in the smoke and the White Dragons watched in dismay as Venom's form became more clear.

The smoke finally cleared to reveal the monster that it kept hidden. Venom's claws, hair and even skin were as pitch black as the white of his eye's, which were just as black as the small pupil in the center of his crimson iris. A dark smile crept across his face to reveal his beastly teeth and he let out a malicious chuckle that sent a shudder down Jessy's spine and sent a wave of fear through the entire room, even his own team was a little frightened by Venom's very presence.

"Come on," Venom spoke in a daunting bellow. "come at me now." he challenged. No one in the room moved, they just looked at each other hesitantly, still not sure on what to make of this new form. "What, don't tell me your scared." he said with a malicious smile across his face.

"Why we would we be scared of a traitorous little shit like you!?" Brian called out with new found confidence. He looked back at his comrades with a reassuring look in his eye's and then glared back at Venom. Brian clenched his fists and put energy into his arms to give him an extra boost of speed. "DIE!!" he screamed as he shot off like a bullet at Venom with his fists at his side, ready to strike with either one. Brain started punching wildly at Venom but he dodged all of them with little effort, then moved to the side and Brian fell forward. He quickly turned around and flew back at Venom and swung his fist but Venom caught it. Venom began crushing his fist but before Brian could react Venom kneed him in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him, then punched him in the face causing Brian to fly off to the side and slide painfully across the ground. Venom turned to see a lightning bolt shooting toward him; he merely widened his malicious smile and caught the electricity in his hand and threw it to the ground, where it dissipated into the earth.

Zach couldn't believe what he had just seen but he shook the look of amazement off his face and charged a bigger bolt of electricity and shot it at his adversary. Venom held his palm out and the lightning struck it but he just held out his other hand toward William, who was charging at him from the side, and shot it at him by absorbing the lightning and sending the electricity through his chest and into his other hand. The electricity hit William hard in the face, but before he could recover Venom was charging hard at him only to be slowed down by a huge gust of wind. Venom easily shot out of the concentrated blast of air and landed right in front of Jessy and he punched her hard enough in the face to throw her about ten feet backwards. Zach began to retaliate but Venom was already right in front of him. Zach punched down at him but Venom side stepped and grabbed Zach's throat, digging his claws deep into his skin and began pumping large amounts of poison into his body.

Zach was stunned for a few seconds before he knocked Venom's hand off of him and punched him hard in the face. Venom jumped back and gave Zach a confused look, Zach used Venom's confusion as an opportunity and shot a lightning bolt at him. Venom side stepped the lightning only to be uppercut into the air by William and met in the air by Brian, who knocked him back to the earth where William waited. William went to kick him while he was down but he jumped up and kicked Brian out of the air and dropped down right in front of William with his back facing him. Venom then threw his elbow back hard into William's stomach and William bent down so Venom punched him in the chin and jumped into the air so that he could kick William's face back down into the dirt. Venom landed on Williams back and jumped toward Zach, punching him extremely hard in his stomach then in the cheek.

Venom walked over to Zach who lie motionless on the ground. He roared down at him and then reared back his claws and prepared to strike. Zach opened his eye's and grabbed Venom's leg and began to send huge amounts of electricity surging through his body. Venom roared in pain for a second before he kicked Zach in the face and stepped on his arm and began to crush it until he let go. Zach let go just in time to allow Venom to be sent flying backwards by William punching him in the face. Venom was suddenly slammed into the ceiling by a burst of wind and then hit hard threw the ceiling, into the next floor, by a orb of positive energy exploding on his chest. Brian pursued him into the room only to be punched in the face as soon as he got threw the hole in the floor. Venom then knocked him downwards followed by grabbing on to the hole and flipping into it so he could kick off the ceiling, shooting him downward towards Brian. Brain hit the ground before he did and rolled out of the way before Venom could stomp on his body. Venom went to pursue him but he had to jump backward before William hit him, he then retaliated by punching William hard in his face and then he began tearing at his skin with his razor sharp claws. Venom ended the series of powerful slashes with a hard kick that sent William staggering backwards and he shot at Brian, who had brought himself back to his feet, and started doing the same thing to him. Venom let drops of toxin seep from the tips of his claws and got ready to strike Brian again but he suddenly jumped to the side in order to dodge a lightning bolt, causing it to hit Brian hard. Venom charged at Zach with his claws reared back and got ready to kill him with ease but a blast of wind knocked him on to the ground. Venom got to his feet and jumped toward Jessy. He punched her hard in the face and then kicked her in the stomach, knocking her unconscious as he sent her rolling across the hard stone floor. Venom then shot back at Brian with his claws reared back.

Guy, Jackie and Joey all watched in aw as Venom continued to take on all of the White Dragons by himself.

"Should we help him?" Guy asked not daring to take his eye's off of his leader.

"No, The sword's power robs him of his humanity and makes him fight like an animal until the enemy is defeated or until his body cant take it any longer and finally gives out." Joey explained.

"And what happens then?" Jackie asked

"I'm not sure, he could be fine or it could kill him, he has never had to do this for anything except training his body. But I do know that if we jump in right now he might not be able to distinguish friend from foe." Joey continued as he watched Venom easily dodge Brian's fists.

Venom grabbed Brian's wrist and broke his arm by punching his elbow. Brian yelled in pain and Venom prepared to slit his throat with his claws but Zach punched him in the mouth before he could make the final slash. Venom smiled as he wiped the blood from his lips and then ran at Zach. Zach dodged Venom's first punch and tried to hit him in the side but Venom quickly jumped backwards and then back toward him with a hard kick to his chin.

"Hey!" a booming voice called out before Venom could begin another attack. Venom looked up at William and growled. "You want to kill someone, then kill me!" William yelled down at Venom.

Venom looked up at him and then looked around at the enemy's around him and suddenly regained some of his lost humanity. Jessy was unconscious, Brian had a broke arm, and Zach had almost no energy at all, He knew that William was the only real threat to him anymore. A dark smile crept across Venom's face as his body began to glow blood-red yet again. He stared at his hand as it began to shake violently and all the red glow flowed into his hand, symbolizing all the demonic energy in his body flowing into his open palm. As soon as he had focused all his power into his open palm he clinched his fist and winced in pain then looked up at William who was standing there with a cocky smile on his face.

"Bring it on, little man." William smirked. Venom took his advice and began sprinting toward William with incredible speed and ferocity. Venom jumped in the air a few feet away from William and came down swinging the fist that he had gathered all his energy and slammed it into Williams face, causing an explosion of red light that blinded everyone in the room.

Guy watched as the smoke cleared to reveal Venom holding his limp arm, cringing in pain, and breathing heavily. His body had returned to its normal small, light skinned, red eyed, black haired, self. Guy then shifted his eyes toward William who lie unconscious a few feet away from Venom. Guy started to smile in triumph but his triumphant joy was ripped away when Zach suddenly wrapped his arm around his neck and slammed his open palm into the small of Guy's back, releasing a massive amount of electricity into his his body.

Zach released Guy's limp body and let it fall to the ground. Jackie hesitated in confusion for a few seconds before attaching Zach with a small fire ball that Zach just dodged and retaliated with a hard punch to Jackie's face that sent him soaring through the air. Jackie quickly spun in the air just in time to dodge Zach's fist and kick him hard in the side then shoot him in the back with a blast of flames. Zach fell to the ground, wincing in pain and Jackie flew towards him, but was hit hard in the side by a ball of exploding energy. Before Brian could charge another ball of energy Joey punched him in the jaw and followed with a hard uppercut. Joey went to punch Brian once again but Brian caught his fist and charged energy into it, causing it to explode violently. Joey tried to kick him in his broken arm but his reaction time was to slow and Brian dogged and shot him in the face with another ball of energy, ripping away some of the artificial flesh from his face to reveal his mechanic endoskeleton.

Jackie punched at Zach, his fist blazing with white fire, but Zach just side stepped and shot him in the back with a bolt of lightning.

Venom watched the battle taking place before him and examined himself to realize that there was no way they could win. Joey had been severely damaged when Zach kicked him in the chest and he was moving to slow to fight Brian or Zach, Jackie was tired and bruised from his fight with William and was no match for either of them and Venom himself had ripped apart the muscles inside his right arm by putting so much power into it; that act had also drained him of almost all of his energy. Venom knew that he could not just call retreat and be able to get away fast enough so he thought of a new plan.

"Inferno!" Venom called down at Jackie, who had just shot into the air to avoid Zach's punch. "Use the spell!" he screamed as he ran down and scooped up Nikki with his one good arm and threw her on his shoulder. "Cyborg get Rockfist, NOW!!" he screamed at Joey who had just been slammed to the ground by his opponent. Venom threw Nikki's unconscious body to Jackie, who caught her in mid air, and ran toward Brian, kicking him hard in the face, giving Jackie enough time to land right in front of the door and pull his spell book from Venom's coat pocket. Before Brian could punch back Venom kicked him in his broke arm and jumped away, landing right next to Zach. Venom pulled out his sword and cut a large gash across his chest before Zach could react, then jumped backwards toward Jackie and Joey. Jackie was reading some strange and foreign words out of his book as the small flame in his hand began to grow and consume him along with his brother and his two sleeping comrades that Joey had on each shoulder. Venom landed right in between them as the flame grew to an enormous size and consumed all five of them. Zach pulled his attention away from the painful gash across his torso and watched as they all disappeared within the flame.

The enormous flame suddenly turned bright red then imploded into itself to reveal that all of the black demons had disappeared within it.


	9. The Demon's Den

A chilled breeze blew threw a dark, empty, room. The walls were barren and dark, the paint was chipped, faded, stained, and weathered by time, giving the entire room a dismal appearance. There was a few torn and tattered pieces of furniture scattered across the room that were just as weathered by time as the rest of the room.

A small flame, no larger than the flame of a candle, suddenly appeared in the air in the middle of the room. The flame suddenly erupted into a large blaze that lit the entire room and three shaded figures formed within it. Joey stormed out of the fire and dropped his two allies harshly on the ground.

"Dammet!" Joey called out in rage as he slammed his fist on the table in front of him, making a large hole right through the table.

"Nice," Jackie said calmly as the flames that surrounded him and his leader dissipated into the air. Jackie walked past his brother, setting his spell book on the ragged couch next to him as he took his place in the middle of the three cushions. "now we don't have a table, dick head."

"Hey, if you and Guy would have been able to keep William busy like you were told to do then we would have won that battle. The White Dragon's would all be dead and we could start our plan to take what is rightfully ours." Joey screamed at his brother from across the room.

"Me, What about you? All you had to do was take care of Brian, all you had to do was keep him off the masters back long enough for him to kill Zach, and you couldn't even do that."

"Brian can throw exploding energy at me, he is faster then the master when he has his weights on and he can fly, what's your excuse!?"

"William is fucking invincible, you idiot!"

"It was two on one, now explain to me how he got past the both of you so god dam easy."

"I'd like to see you stop him from doing what he wants to do!"

"You are the most…"

"Silence!" Venom ordered the two brothers that were fighting like they were kids again. They immediately stopped screaming at each other and began glaring at one another before Venom pulled both of their attention towards him and away from each other. "I have some questions and they need answering, right now." they gave him a confused look and walked over to the table that Venom had laid his coat and sword down on. He grabbed the dog tags that hung from his neck and displayed one of them to the two men. "They called me Travis, how did they know that name?" he asked as he looked back and forth between the two.

"What do you mean, boss?" Jackie asked in confusion as he gave Joey a bewildered look.

"I mean, how did a group of people that I have never met before know that name?" he answered with agitation in his voice.

"Sir, they all know… I mean, _knew _you… before the accident." Jackie explained hesitantly.

"What accident?" Venom's fierce nature had faded in his voice and his eyes and replaced with a look similar to that of a child who was told something they couldn't possibly understand in their ignorant youth.

"The accident that gave us all our powers, master."

Venom turned away and began staring off into the distance as if in deep thought. "I see." was all he replied with as he gazed at the half-lit moon through the window.

The two brothers gave one another a puzzled look and then looked back at their leader. They didn't know what to say or to think, they only knew that what ever was bothering Venom it could not be good.

They all sat in silence for a few moments before Venom finally spoke up. "Cyborg." he called.

"Yes master." Joey replied quickly.

"You once told me that there was ten others like us." Venom said as he continued to stare out the window, he then turned his attention toward Joey and the bewilderment in his voice and on his face disappeared and the darkness in his visage reappeared. "So far, I have only counted nine." he walked back over to the table and stared intently at Joey. "Where is the last demonically infected man."

Joey hesitated to tell him for a second, considering who the last person was but he finally replied with an answer. "In New York City, back in America." he hesitated before speaking again. "Her name is Ariel and she wont be that easy to bring in."

"Ariel, huh?" Venom paused for a second, as the familiarity of the name struck him speechless for a moment before he regained his head.

"What makes her so hard to take down." Jackie asked.

"Well, according to the internet, she has won the last four American martial arts tournaments in a row and is competing in this years tournament as well." Joey explained.

"So she is a good fighter, do you really think that she is a match for all of us?" Jackie questioned in defiance.

"We have no idea what her power is and it must be something pretty good to be the first woman to ever win the tournament and the only person to ever win it four years in a row." Joey explained.

"Well, I don't care what her power is or how good of a fighter she is, we are going after her." Venom demanded.

"What are we going to do, master?" Joey asked.

"Can we kill her, or maybe have a little fun with her first." Jackie smiled in excitement. "If I remember right, she was quit a looker."

"We could do that, but the only purpose that it would serve is that it would make sure that she doesn't get in our way and I have a much more profitable plan in mind." Venom explained, his voice laced with malicious intent. "we seem to be having trouble defeating the White Dragons with our current numbers, so why not turn the tables more in our favor."

"And just how are we going to do that?" Jackie continued to question.

"One week should be enough time for all of us to completely recover and then we will tear apart the city until we find the last of the infected." Venom explained. "Once we find her, we will turn her over to our side and then we will have the advantage."

"Sir, with all do respect, I think we can handle them on our own." Jackie argued.

"If that were true, I would be out there concerning the entire world right now, not debating my next plan with a low-level weakling like you!" Venom barked.

"Sir, I…" Jackie started.

"This isn't a debate Inferno." Venom yelled. "In one week we will attack new york city and find this… Ariel woman. We are going to find her and turn her. Is that clear?" Jackie opened his mouth hesitantly to speak but Venom let out a low growl and barred his teeth.

"Yes, sir." Jackie lowered his head in defeat.

Guy let out a soft moan as he awoke from his beaten torpor. "Ugh, what happened?" he grabbed his head and shook, then looked back and forth in confusion as his blurred vision corrected itself. "How the hell did I get back here, weren't we just fighting in Zach's house."

Venom and Jackie looked down at him and then back at each other. "Fill him in." Venom ordered as he motioned down at Guy. Venom then grabbed his sword and his jacket and stormed off into his room and slammed the door behind him.

Guy looked back up at Jackie after his vision completely returned. "I feel like I missed something."

Venom tossed and turned in his bed as the dreams plagued his mind. He suddenly stopped moving and a content smile crept across his face as the newly found dream seeped into his mind…

… A cool summer breeze blew and rattled the leaves on a large tree in the middle of a large grassy field. The little boy sitting on the branch laughed at the small girl sitting next to him as she recovered from loosing balance and almost falling out of the tree.

"Shut-up" The small girl giggled and playfully punched the small boy. The small boy started to laugh but lost his balance and almost fell out of the tree himself. He grabbed hold of the tree and caught himself before he fell and the small girl began laughing so hard she almost fell off the branch she was swinging on again but the small boy quickly grabbed hold of her arm.

"Whoa, girl, don't hurt yourself." he joked playfully as he lifted her back on to the tree.

"Hey, quick hands there, stud." she laughed. There was an awkward silence between the two for a few seconds before she looked down and realized that he was still holding firmly on to her hand. They both looked down at their interlocked fingers and then back into each others blue eyes. It was strange how similar the two children were, they both had blonde hair, blue eyes, and they were both very fit for eight-year-old children.

They both began to lean towards each other and began to close their eyes. Their lips barely made contact before a loud voice began to ring in their ears.

"Travis!!" a voice called out from the trailer a few hundred yards away. They both froze and Travis turned his head toward his home and his drunken step dad screaming from the back porch. "Get your little ass back into the house, its dinner time!" he called out.

"looks like I got to go." Travis said regrettably as he glared at his back porch. He jumped down from the tree and landed gracefully on the ground. "See you in Kenjutsu class tomorrow, ok Ariel." he called out as he began walking slowly toward his house.

"We'll finish this later, ok." Ariel yelled out to him.

"I'll hold you to that." he waved goodbye as he began a slow jog toward his house.

"Don't think I'll go easy on you just because you kissed me today and don't be late, we are practicing Varma Kalari tomorrow." Ariel smiled as she watched the small boy trench through the tall grass. She looked down to realize that he had left his bokken behind. "oh, he'll be needing this, I'd better bring it to him." she jumped down, picked up the small wooden sword, and began slowly walking through the grass while humming a cheerful tune.

Travis slowed to a slow stride as he approached the porch and looked up at his mom's boyfriend.

"It's about time you little shit, now get in the house, your moms putting dinner on the table." he sneered with contempt at the small child.

Travis walked right passed the table where his mom was placing a pot full of something that smelled a lot like his grandmas beef stew. He stepped into his room and untied the yellow belt from his black kimono and hung it on the rack behind his door, which was littered with different colored belts and medals. He listened to the familiar screams of the couple fighting and the crashes of his moms drunken lover slamming his fists into the walls and throwing things around the small trailer as he got changed out of his kimono and into something more casual for dinner. He went into the living room/kitchen and grabbed himself a plate, ignoring the screaming man behind him. Travis sat down at the table and began helping him self to the small meal that lay before him.

"What the hell are you doing in here, boy?" the man asked the boy with distain in his voice.

"I'm eating." the boy said sarcastically and shoved a spoon full of beef stew into his mouth.

"Are you talking back to me boy?"

"Nope." Travis continued eating as he spoke.

"Are you lying to me, boy"

"You asked a question, I answered, that isn't talking back, you drunken ignoramus?"

"What did you call me?" the man asked in a drunken stupor and his words slurred a little.

"Ignoramus, an offensive term that deliberately insults a person's level of intelligence or education."

"Why you little…" the man raised his hand and prepared to strike the child but his mother stepped between the two.

"Sweetie, why don't you go into your room and play with your toys" she said sweetly to the small boy. He merely ignored her and continued to slurp on his stew.

"Get out of my way!" he screamed at the boys mother as he knocked her to the ground. "this kid needs to be taught a lesson." he raised his hand and back-handed the boy, knocking him to the ground. Travis glared up at his moms boyfriend with content. The drunken man only took this as further insult and began brutally beating the child. He suddenly picked Travis up and slammed him against the wall. "what have you got to say now, boy?"

Travis opened his blood covered mouth to speak in stubborn defiance but something at the door caught his eye. He turned his head to see Ariel watching in horror. He started to tell her to run, but the man saw her first. He dropped Travis and ran toward the door. Ariel shook her head out of her stupefied state and tried in vain to run out of the door before the drunken man slammed it behind her.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he screamed at the small girl.

"Shaun, she is just a little girl." the mother pleaded.

"Yah, Becky, a girl who might call the cops." Shaun snarled as he stared down at child.

"I… I… I just came to bring back Travis's bokken." Ariel explained timidly, her voice growing smaller with every word she spoke. "and I… uh…"

"What the fuck is a baken?" Shaun began to advance upon the small girl.

"Its pronounced bokken, you drunk bastard," Travis wiped the blood from his mouth and continued to look daggers at the staggering man that towered above the small girl "and her name is Ariel."

Shaun looked over to Travis and his face twisted into a rage. "What did you say to me, boy!?!?"

"Get away from her!!" Travis screamed at the man. The man ignored the boys pleads and continued to advance upon her. "I said, get away!!!" he screamed again and ran at Shaun, jumping in the air so he could reach his face. Shaun mearly knocked Travis out of the air and returned his attention to the girl.

"Your not going to tell anyone about this, are you little girl?" Shaun continued to advance.

"No,… I…. I….I" Ariel stammered, frightened and scared of the man that towered above her.

"Shut up!!!" Shaun knocked her to the ground with a hard back handed slap to her cheek.

"Don't touch her!!!" Travis screamed up at the man. The man continued to ignore the boy until he herd a low bellowing growl come from him, he stopped advancing on Ariel when a red glow coming from the same direction caught his eye.

A great fear appeared in Shaun's eyes as he watched the small child transform into something monstrous. His eye's shined blood-red, his teeth grew razor sharp, claws extended from his finger tips and his hair turned pitch-black as he grew in to a small adult. The creature looked up at Shaun and let out a loud roar as it charged at him with his claws held back, ready to strike.

Ariel watched in horror as the creature that Travis had become began to rip his step-father apart with his bare hands. Becky screamed as the creature approached her and lifted its bloody hands. Ariel turned her head but could still see the shadows of the creature tearing at its mother as her screams quickly turned to dead silence. She than watched as the shadow of her transformed boyfriend consumed her and stretched out on the wall in front of her.

Ariel turned slowly too see the monster glaring down at her with its crimson eyes. It snarled as at reached down and grabbed her by the throat. She began to squirm wildly as it slid her up the wall to meet its eye level. It stared at her for a moment, watching the fear grow in her eyes as she continued to squirm and punch at his arm, before he raised his bloody hand. The creature slung his arm down at the child.

It was at that exact moment, that Venom shot up as he awoke in a sweat. Venom looked around the dark room frantically for a moment from his upright position on his bed. After a quick look around the room, he realized that he was now back in the real world and that all of it was just a dream. He took a deep breath in attempt to slow his racing heart and to steady his erratic breathing. Venom took another look around the room once his eyes adjusted to the darkness. The walls were barren and dark, just like the rest of the room, and, other than the bed in which he lay and a small night stand, there wasn't any furniture. Venom could here laughing in the other room and he could see a light coming from the small crack underneath his door, but he ignored it. He grabbed his dog tags from the night stand and walked into his bathroom.

Venom splashed some cool water on his face in an attempt to shake the nightmare from his mind. His mind was racing with possible answers to what this dream might have meant as he grabbed a small towel from the rack and dried off his face. When he removed the towel from his face he was met with a gruesome image in the mirror. The man in the mirror looked like him but his eyes were glowing red, his fangs were longer, his hair seemed unkempt and his expression was twisted into a dark and sinister smile.

"What the hell do you want?" Venom stared at contempt at the image looking back at him in the mirror.

"Oh, I just wanted to check up on you." The image answered, malice dripping from every word. "You know that this girl could be the key to turning the tables in our favor, right."

"Yah, and…" Venom replied, glaring at the image he hated so much.

"Well, I just wanted to make sure that you didn't mess things up for us."

"What makes you think that I would mess this up?"

"I told you before that these people are not to be underestimated and yet you have been defeated by them three times. Killing the White Dragons is the only way to see our ultimate goal achieved and this woman will insure our victory and leave nothing standing in the way of a perfect world."

"Just shut up and get the hell out of my head!" Venom sneered at the image in the mirror. Then turned to walk back out of the bathroom. As he made his way back to his bed he noticed his mirror image leaning against the doorway of the bathroom with his arms crossed, the same evil smile smeared across his face.

"You know you cant do this without me, so why are you fighting me every step of the way."

"I don't need you." Venom argued as he stared out the window, gazing out at the half moon that lingered in the clear, star covered, sky.

"You are week and you could never do this without me!"

"Shut up"

"What the hell makes you think that you are worth anything without me!"

"Shut up!"

"You aren't shit without me and you know it!"

"Shut up!!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up, what are you going to do if I don't, nothing because your to weak to do anything without me helping you!"

"I said shut up!!!" Venom suddenly screamed at the image, grabbing its throat and slamming it against the wall. He glared at the creature he had pinned against the wall and breathed heavily as the creatures smile returned.

"Go ahead and kill me, if you can." The creatures smile widened displaying his vicious fangs.

Venom turned around and ripped his sword from his sheath but when he turned to strike the creature it had disappeared without a trace, as if it was never there. His erratic breathing slowed to a calm visage. He turned to place the sword back into its sheath that was propped against the night stand, only to be met by the creature once more.

"Fine, ill leave you be, but remember, ill be watching you." and with that, the creature faded away into the darkness leaving Venom alone in the dark empty room.

Venom could hear his team mates laughing and enjoying the rare night of relaxation, so he decided to join them, rather then returning to the nightmares that await, should he try to sleep again. He grabbed a black tank top and opened the door of his room to meet the blinding bright lights of the living room chandelier.

As soon as Venom entered the room it as if all the energy was sucked out of it as all their attention turned to him in fear.

"I'm sorry, did we wake you, master?" Joey asked timidly.

"No, I just came in to get a drink." he lied. He put his dog tags around his neck and began to slip his arms into his shirt but stopped when he noticed Niki starring, wide-eyed, at his muscular torso. Venom smiled cockily as he watched Niki turn her head in an attempt to hide her red face, then slipped the tight tank top over his head and pulled it down to his waist line.

Guy continued his humorous anecdote as Venom walked into the kitchen to fetch himself a drink. When Venom walked back into the room they were all sharing a laugh.

"Then the whole building started shaking and everyone was screaming and running around like little cock roaches" Guy continued, a smile smeared across his face.

"Yah, and then the dude suddenly caught fire." Jackie interrupted with the end of the story. "And the best part is that everyone was so scared of the earthquake and the building coming down that no one even bothered to try to put him out." he laughed out loud.

"Wow, you guys are evil." Niki gave them a fearful look, even though she should have been used to it by now.

"We're evil, ha, may I remind you of the day the master turned you to our side?" Guy laughed at her act of innocence.

"That was different." Niki argued.

"Dude, you forced boiling hot water into his lungs and made him drown in it. I don't care what he did, that, is evil"

"We were going out for four years and he tells me, on our anniversary, that he has been cheating on me for three of them!" Niki screamed.

"You do realize that the boiling water probably burned through his lungs and started burning the rest of his organs before he was dead."

"Well, he got what he deserved. Guys like that shouldn't be aloud to live!" Niki crossed her arms and gave him a menacing look. "At least I had a good reason to do something terrible, you got pissed off because you lost an argument of who would win in a fight between two comic book heroes."

"Well, maybe you should make that a law once we rule the world" Joey joked as he continued to work on an robotic spine on the table.

"Yah, I can see it now," Jackie began with his signature, buck-toothed, goofy smile. "Empress Niki makes adultery and being unfaithful in any way illegal and punishable under pain of death."

"That actually sounds like a good idea." Niki put her hand to her chin, pretending to ponder on the situation a little. Everyone began to laugh loudly and even Venom let out small chuckle. "So, Venom, we have all told our story's on how we first discovered our powers" Venom's smile disappeared and he gave Niki a very dim expression. "How did you first figure out you had powers?"

The room grew dead silent as Venom let out a low growl. Joey suddenly grabbed Niki's shoulder and pulled her close to his lips so he could whisper in her ear.

"Never ask him anything about his past, it only pisses him off." Joey whispered. Niki gave him a look of fear before she slowly turned her attention back to her master.

"I'm going outside to train" Venom stated with no sine of emotion at all. Venom walked out the door and slammed it behind him.

"Wow, last time I asked him about his past he through me out a window, that's how I broke my spine in the first place." Joey said matter-of-factly and walked back to the table to return to his work.

"What happened to him? Its like he doesn't even know who he is." Niki sat at the table while Joey worked on the spine with his odd looking tools.

"No one knows." Joey didn't look away from his project as he spoke. "I was the first member of the Black Demons and it was about two months before we recruited any of you and I swear that I know less about him now then I did then."

"So, does anyone know anything about him?" Niki looked over to the other two boys but Guy just shrugged his shoulders while Jackie finished just his glass of expensive wine and got up to go pore himself another glass.

"Just face it, Niki, that man is a mystery and that is probably the way its going to stay." Jackie poured himself another glass and grabbed a bottle whiskey from the cabinet and handed it to Niki as he passed. "So, why don't you pour us all some shots and we can enjoy our night off before we attack the city."

"So, you guy's aren't at all curious about our leaders past or the fact that, besides his hair and eye color, he looks exactly like our old friend and is wearing ID tags that have Travis's full name on them, you know, the same Travis that died about five years ago?" Niki asked as she grabbed some shot glasses out of the cupboard and brought them over to the table.

Guy took one of the glasses that Niki had poured and threw it back and swallowed hard. "Well," he mad a face as if he had just swallowed poison as the burning sensation seeped down his throat. "of course we are curious, but I'd rather not press the matter and get myself killed."

"What makes you think he will even get angry with us?"

"I want you to take a look out the window and ask me the question again." Guy pointed out the window where Venom could be seen tearing viciously through the training grounds that Joey had built for him outside.

"Well… maybe your write." Niki agreed as she watched Venom rip apart a large robot with his bare hands.

"Come on Joey, stop playing around with that toy of yours and come have some drinks with us." Jackie pleaded with his brother.

"For one thing," Joey looked at his older brother with contempt then put his tools down next to the robotic spine and walked over to the torn and tattered couch. "Its not a toy, it's a replacement spine to attach to the replacement torso that Zach put a huge dent in and secondly, if I wasn't done with it already then I wouldn't even consider quitting my work to drink with you guy's."

"How can you drink that and it have any affect on you, I thought you were, like, a robot or something?" Niki asked as she threw back a glass as well.

"Actually I'm a Cyborg now, hence the nickname, so all of my organs are still mostly organic."

"What do you mean by 'mostly' organic." Niki gave him a funny look.

Joey opened his mouth to start speaking again but he was cut off by Venom bursting through the door, sweating profusely and panting heavily. "Are you alright, master?" Joey asked in fear as Venom looked around the room, his eyes burning with intensity.

Venom did not reply he just looked at the group and noticed the glasses and bottle of whiskey on the table that all his loyal minions gathered around it. "Don't get to drunk my demons, I don't want you charging into battle with hangovers." with that, he walked into his room and shut the door behind him.

"What do you suppose that was all about?" Jackie asked in confusion as he stared at the closed door that hid his leader's actions behind it.

"I'm not sure, but did you guys ever notice that our master is hot!" Niki looked up, thinking about her master.

"Ok, that was both disturbing and unwanted information but thank you for that, Niki." Guy said as slammed back another shot.

Joey looked over at the woman sitting next to him who was still staring up at the ceeling. "Hello, earth to Niki."

"Oh, I'm sorry, what were you saying?" Niki answered, a little upset that she had just been distracted form her fantasy world.

"Anyway, like I was saying…" Joey continued explaining how his new body worked while the rest of the group listened intently.

They drank and joked a little longer into the night but still heeded their masters warning and retired early enough to be well rested for the upcoming battle. Little did they know that the White Dragons were planning a somber surprise for all of them.

Authors note: Ive had had alot of readers, and ide like to thank you for reading, but ive had zero reveiws. I need some opinions and some backup so i wont be posting any reveiws until i get some reveiws with some honest opinions and some constructive critisism.


	10. Ariel and the Demons

"You Jerk!!!" The young woman remembered her own words so vividly. Every second of that day was so expertly sketched in her mind that she could almost still feel it. She was in the first grade and she was yelling at her boyfriend. Ariel giggled at the thought of having a boyfriend the age of six as she continued to replay the memory in her mind.

"What do you know?" the freckled boy wrinkled his nose and stuck it in the air as spoke the words he had probably learned from watching Saturday morning cartoons. "Your just a girl." he said in a mocking sort of manner as he made a flip with his wrist, making all his friends behind him snicker and laugh at the immature gesture.

"A lot more than any stupid boy!" The young Ariel replied and all the boys behind the freckled boy she was yelling at all began calling and chanting in unison, aging the small boy on.

"Shut-up!" the small boy yelled in a panic as he noticed the crowd that had formed around the two arguing children starting to turn on him.

"Make me!" Ariel crossed her arms and a cocky half smile appeared across her face. The crowd of children began to chant in unison "Fight, fight, fight!!!"

"Shut-up!!!" the boy screamed and punched Ariel in the face, knocking her to the ground.

Ariel pushed herself off the ground until she could sit upright without using her arms. She wiped the small trickle of blood from her mouth with the back of her hand and glared up at him with an intensity that which a six year old shouldn't even be capable of.

"Is that the best you've got?" Ariel growled up at the boy. The boy raised his hand once more but just as he began to strike a small hand grabbed his wrist and held it firmly in place.

That was the first time that she had ever laid eyes on him. His cobalt blue eyes burning with a fiery passion, his short dirty-blonde hair shimmered in the sunlight and his heroic actions shone through his fearsome and rugged appearance. All his clothes were old, stained, slightly dirty, and full of holes and rips. He was the most intriguing boy that she had ever seen and she just had to know who he was.

"Don't you ever lay your hands on a lady" The small boy had a harsh seriousness to his tone of voice that was unlike anything that should ever come from a six year old boy.

"What are you goanna do about it, shorty?" The freckled boy asked in aggravation and began trying to tug his wrist away from the blonde boy. The blonde child waited until the other boy tugged with all of his might before letting him go so that he would fall flat on his backside.

"Nothing," the small boy replied sternly "as long as you just stay down." the small boy glared down at freckled child as he shook himself out of his daze and jumped up to his feet. The freckled boy stood at least six inches or more above the other child but the blonde boy still stared up at him with such confidence that Ariel barely even noticed the difference in height.

"You better stay out of this, small fry, before you get yourself hurt." He repeated yet another phrase he had heard on some cartoon show.

"Get out of my face, you idiot." The blonde child waved the other kid away as he began to walk away slowly. This only infuriated the red-haired boy even more and he raised his fist and swung at the back of the other child. The boy smiled as he expected to make contact with the arrogant youth but his smile disappeared when he only felt the air against his fist. The freckled child turned back around to see that the other kid had gotten lucky and dogged his attack. He swung again, and again, and once more but his fists continued to miss their target.

The small child let out let out a yell in anger and charged at the boy once more. The blonde boy's face twisted into a scowl and he suddenly threw his fist with all of his might and made hard contact with his freckled face, knocking him straight to the ground. The blonde child stared down at the boy and a small smile crept across the blonde kids face, as the freckled child slipped out of consciousness.

The boy slowly made his way over to the small girl and reached his hand out to the girl, offering to help the girl to her feet. Ariel was in such an entranced state that she had almost forgotten that she was still sitting on the hard pavement. She shook her head, took the boys hand, and allowed herself to be lifted upright.

"Are you alright?" The boy asked as he pulled her up.

"I had that handled you know," Ariel protested stubbornly "I didn't need your help!" she crossed her arms and turned her back, expecting the boy to argue his case, but he didn't.

"Whatever." Was all he said as he walked toward a larg tree and began to climb it so he could retake his place on the large branch above. She didn't understand, most boys would have argued with her or at least try and tell her to be more grateful to the person who had just defended her but he didn't, he was different.

Ariel stared up at the ceiling as she reminisced about how much of her child hood she spent up in tree's with him. She could still remember the first time he tried to kiss her in the tree outside his step-dads house, she could still remember sneaking out late at night to find him sitting on top of his roof, staring up at the stars, she could still remember the first time he snuck through her window because he had a bad dream and she could never forget when he actually succeeded in kissing her for the first time; on the bank of the old creek behind her house, on that warm summers night.

The warm and loving smile that had found its way across her face slowly faded as her mind wandered to their last night together. How she could almost still taste his lips firmly pressed against her own, how she could still feel the warmth of his arms as they held her so tightly, how she could still hear his soft whispered words in her ear, how she could still smell the scent of his cologne and how she could still see how pale and lifeless his face looked before they zipped up his body bag.

The loud beeping of the hotel alarm clock ripped her away from her painful memories. Ariel reached out and slammed her fist on the snooze button for the third time this morning, even though she was wide awake. Ariel reluctantly dragged herself out of bed and stretched her sore muscles. The tournament had taken a lot out of her, but all the money and the title of "Worlds greatest martial artist" was well worth it. She had not only won the tournament for the fifth consecutive year in a row but four years ago she had been one of the youngest people to win and the first women to even make it past round three in the history of the tournament. She was very proud of herself to have made it this far but the pride she felt still did not replace the sadness that plagued her heart and sole. Ariel shook the thoughts out of her head and walked into the large hotel bathroom to get cleaned up.

As she finished drying her long blonde hair with the hotel towel she stared at her reflection and tried not smile at how good she looked when her hair was down. Her bangs framed her beautiful young face and her golden blonde hair accented her brilliant blue eye's. Unfortunately, her beauty only attracted unwanted male attention so she decided to put it up in a pony tale as she normally did in training and in a battle. After all of her hair was firmly in place, she took another look at herself in the mirror and memory's of her first love began to flood her mind once more.

Ariel's heart sank into the pit of her stomach as the tragic memory of the only man she ever truly loved seemed to rip their way through her entire body. Tears began to swell up in her eye's and she did her best to keep them from falling down her face. She swallowed hard in an attempt to stop the sobs that threatened to defile every breath she took. Her sore muscles tensed up and her knuckles began to turn white as she gripped the sink hard in an attempt to fight back the powerful sorrow that was desperately pushing its way to the surface.

Ariel opened her eyes and it was as if she were opening flood gates to a powerful river that had been contained for far too long as the tears cascaded down her face. She did her best not to raise her head, she did not want to see what would be staring back at her. Although it had been a long while since she had given in to the sorrow, she could still remember the pathetic excuse for a woman that she knew would be awaiting her in the mirror. Ariel fought off the urge for as long as she could before raising her gaze toward what she expected to see in the glass, but what she saw made her eye's widen and her face turn as pale as a ghost.

Ariel blinked, rubbed her eyes, and shook her head, but no matter how hard she concentrated the image that stared back through the mirror did not disappear. It was him, it was Travis! He looked older, bigger, stronger, and more mature than before but she was sure it was him, there was no mistaking those eye's. They were intense, deep, gorgeous, cobalt blue eye's, full of so much pain, struggle, turmoil, death, but under it all she could still see all the kindness, hope, strength and love that only a select few could see in him. He was standing behind her to her right, staring intently at the reflection of her own eyes. His face was burdened with sadness and despair and his breathing was shallow but loud, as if he was barely alive. Then he whispered her name, just loud enough for her to hear it. Ariel turned to respond to his call but he was gone without a trace.

Ariel's head looked as if it was going to shake itself loose as she shifted it to look around the empty bathroom. She was just about to begin searching for the rest of the hotel room but a load rumbling shook the ground beneath her, causing her to loose her train of thought. She fell to the floor after another large quake and a loud rumble.

"What now?" she thought aloud in annoyance. Once she could regain her footing she could still hear the rumble and what sounded like a large engine of some kind. She decided to drop her search for the image of her past love and get dressed so that she could learn of what was making all the noise and causing the entire building to shake.

Ariel got dressed in her every day attire, tight fighting black shirt, matching blue jeans, with a large over coat to try and hide how good she looked. If she didn't wear the over-sized dingy brown overcoat she practically had to fight off all the men with a stick to keep them from trying to put their "moves" on her. She walked over to the window and pushed back the blinds to reveal a large military truck moving past her building. She cocked an eyebrow in curiosity as she now stared at the soldiers that sat in the back of the large truck. As it always did, her sense of logic and reason gave way to her inquisitiveness and she opened the window to jump out so that she may follow the long line of military trucks and tanks that moved farther into the heart of the city. Ariel climbed down the building until she got at just about eye level to one of the trucks that was carrying large boxes of what she assumed to be explosives or ammo and jumped on top of it.

Ariel rode on top of the truck until it came to such a sudden stop that it nearly flung her forward. She regained her balance and was nearly knocked down again by the force of an explosion up ahead. She began running and jumping from vehicle to vehicle in order to find the source of the explosion. As she got closer to the withering cloud of smoke she noticed all the soldiers pilling out of their trucks with their rifles locked and loaded, ready to face whatever danger that lie ahead. She stopped on top of the last in the series of trucks once she saw a line of tanks firing at what seemed to be a giant wall of rock and concrete that had tore through a few buildings and cut the tracks to the railway train in half. She watched as the first tank shot a large hole through the base of the wall and began to move forward but was suddenly shot into the air by a pillar that had somehow burst through the street under the tank. The air born tank was suddenly hit with a lage ball of fire, causing it to explode with force enough to shake the ground and almost blow her off of the truck from one hundred feet away. After regaining her balance she looked up towards the sorce of the fire ball to see a man.

Never before had Ariel laid eyes on such a man. There was fire at his feet, keeping him floating just above the forty foot tall wall, his clothes were dark, tattered, and burned, and his hair was on fire. No, his hair **was **fire and his smile was tainted with more malice than she thought possible on another human being. She was nearly entranced by him as he began flinging the fire in his hands at the soldiers before they had a chance to fire their rifles at him. Her gaze was ripped away from the man of fire by a woman who had ran through the whole and began waving her hands at the large amount of water that was now surrounding the heads of about six soldiers. The woman had a slightly dark complexion and even darker hair but neither of these features matched the dark smile on her face as her hands curled into fists and the water that formed around the soldiers heads instantly froze causing the soldiers to fall to the ground limply. The dark haired woman pulled her hands back and with it the water flowed toward her, forming a large halo around her body.

"What the hell is going on around here?" Ariel thought aloud and began to take a step forward to get closer to the strange events but a large portion of the wall crumbled before her eye's, revealing a third man who was walking through the large cloud of smoke and over the pile of rubble. This man didn't look nearly as fierce as the two that came before, he wore glasses, a black trench coat, he had a sinister smile on his face but he seemed to be more composed than the other two and his long ponytail fell past his long neck and on to his shoulder. The man with the glasses suddenly flung his hands into the air and two columns, just like the one before, popped out of the ground and sent two tanks flying through the air. Ariel watched the two tanks flip through the air in horror as the shadow of one of them engulfed her as it fell. She jumped off the truck and onto the building to her left just in time to nearly miss being crushed by the sixty ton vehicle.

Ariel quickly scaled the four-story building to get more of a birds-eye view of the magnificent scene that was taking place below. Once she got to the top of the building she turned just in time to see one of the tanks that was now pointing its cannon at the dark haired woman explode in a ball of fire that would have consumed the woman if it not for the water that somehow willed itself into a shield of ice in front of her.

"Hey, you could have killed me!" the dark haired woman yelled at a red headed man that was now standing a few feet behind her.

"I just saved your life, try and show a little gratitude, bitch." The red haired man replied playfully. His playful smile did not make up for the soulless look in his light blue eye's.

"I had it handled, you just wanted to the fun of doing it yourself." the dark haired woman laughed as she waved her hands at the ice, which seemed to respond by melting and reforming the ring around her waist line.

"Yeah, and?" The red haired man asked as he raised his arm and pointed the palm of his hand at the tank that was bravely rolling toward them. The man closed his fist and the tank exploded just like the last one.

"You guys are hogging all the tanks, let me get a few." The flaming man said as he landed next to the two people and his fiery locks turned back into a jet black mane that flowed a little passed his shoulder blades. A few soldiers ran up as the trio enjoyed a laugh and just as they began to fire a small wall rose from the ground and guarded the three individuals from the bullets.

"Stop playing around and lets just kill them all so we can find Ariel and get the hell out of this city before they send jets to drop bombs on us or something." The man with the glasses yelled at the three individuals who were behind the wall that was now being heavily fired on by the soldiers who had found the courage to actually get close to this strange battle field.

Had Ariel just heard **her** name come out of that mans mouth. Even with her enhanced senses she had to concentrate hard to hear the conversation that was taking place four stories beneath her but she was sure she had just heard the man with the pony tale say they were looking for her, but she was sure she was mistaken. why would these strange people be looking for her? She was ripped away from her thoughts when the man with the pony tail spoke up again.

"Jackie, take care of the soldiers with your fire and the three of us will take care of the tanks." The man with the pony tail demanded. Jackie opened his mouth to argue but was cut off before a single word left his lips by a man walking through the large hole in the wall.

"I have a better idea." the man said as he approached the four behind the small wall. The small man was wearing all black. He had a black trench coat that flowed down to his shiny black combat boots, his tight muscle shirt left very little to the imagination, his loose cargo pants were tucked into his boots and bloused tightly and his mask covered everything on his face bellow his crimson eyes. The man uncrossed his arms and signaled for the others to step back before he jumped over the wall, spiraling in the air so that he would land facing the wall and the soldiers that fired upon it. The soldiers stopped firing and turned to face the man in black.

"Freeze!!!" one of the soldiers yelled forcefully at the man. "Get down on your knees and put your hands behind your head!!" the soldier dropped the magazine from his rifle and replaced it with a full one from his bullet-proof vest then pulled the bolt back to chamber a round and got ready to fire. The man in black completely ignored the soldier and lifted his arms until they were parallel to the ground and he stared up at the sky. The veins in his eyes glowed crimson and all crawled out of his eye socket, seemingly reached out and grabbed his pupil which began to give off a sinister red glow. "Men, prepare to fire!" the soldier ordered the others and they all pointed their weapons at the man in black. "Get on the ground right now or I will not hesitate do blow your god dam brains all over the fucking place!!!" the soldier screamed as the man's entire body began to give off the same ominous glow that his eye's did. The glowing man redirected his gaze from the sky to the soldier. The soldier started to squeeze the trigger gently just as he had done so many times during the time he spent fighting in the war but before he could completely squeeze the trigger a strong shocking sensation started coursing through his entire body.

The soldier let out a terrible scream as his eye's began to glow blood red and red electricity started pulsating from his body, attacking all the soldiers that stood next to him until they're eye's and body gave off the same crimson glow as his own. The glow faded around their body's but only grew brighter in their eye's as they screamed in pain as the shocking sensation was replaced with a feeling as if their entire body was on fire with no way to put it out. As one of the soldier's screams slowly turned into a deep and menacing roar, Ariel noticed that all his teeth began to sharpen and grow, his finger tips grew claws, giving him a grotesque and terrifying appearance.

The man in black crossed his arms and his eye's faded back into their original color as he watched the soldiers slowly stop screaming, signaling that the transformation was complete. The soldiers rose to their feet as if they were all puppets on a string and stared at the man with their red glowing eye's. a few of them let out a low growl as they watched the red haired man walk over to the small man in black.

"Cyborg, show them all the picture and give them that sample of clothing you took form her house," The man ordered the one he called Cyborg as he approached him. "Let them get her scent and I will order them to go and track her down." The one called Cyborg nodded in acknowledgment then took out a black bra from his pocket and threw it to the soldier in front.

"That's my bra?" Ariel whispered quietly to herself. "What the hell are they doing with my bra?" she thought aloud as the soldiers began to smell the bra and pass it along so they could all get a good whiff of the undergarment.

"Minions, drop your gear and go out to seek the one who bares that sent, then bring her to me." The crimson eyed man commanded. The soldier in front let out another low growl in acknowledgement and removed his helmet and his vest, dropping them harshly on the ground, all the other soldiers did the same. Once they all had their gear on the ground the soldiers look at each other and then began to sniff the air, as if they were dogs searching for something. Ariel's eyes widened and she ducked down out of sight when all the possessed soldiers looked up at her in unison.

Ariel peeked over the top of the building only to see the soldiers bounding very quickly to the top of the building. She stood up to face her attackers but as soon as she looked down at them they suddenly shot into the air and flipped over her, landing about ten feet opposite from her on the roof top. The first soldier growled as it glared ominously at the young woman.

"Can I help you?" Ariel asked suspiciously as she backed away slowly, only to realize that she was at the edge of the building. The first soldier replied with a roar and ran at her with his fist reared back. A devilish smile crossed her face and she got into her battle stance as the soldier grew closer and closer to her. As soon as the soldier got within arms length of her it swung his left arm at her, she reacted by knocking his arm to the side with her right arm and then hit the soldier's diaphragm hard with the knuckles on her left fist. The soldier staggered back a few steps after all the breath had been ripped from his lungs, but before he could recapture the ability to breath, she hit him in three pressure points above the neck. The soldier lost consciousness and fell straight back, making a loud thud when he hit the ground.

The other possessed soldiers lost their menacing demeanor for a few seconds as they looked upon this scene in wonder. They glanced at one another for a few seconds before they regained their terrifying expressions. They growled at each other and nodded their heads before they all ran at Ariel, bearing their teeth and their voices booming with a roar that would put a king of beasts to shame. Ariel's smile just grew wider and more fiendish as she watched all the soldiers advance upon her. Ariel closed her eyes focused on the bone in her left forearm and it suddenly shot out of her wrist and sharpened to a fine point. One of the soldier's swung his fist at her. Ariel opened her eye's and reacted by grabbing his arm and stabbing the protruding bone right through the neck, severing the spinal cord, and slammed the soldier on the ground, leaving the bone inside his throat. She spun around, making the bone in her elbow into a blade that shot out of her skin and then slashed the throat of the soldier that had tried attacking her while she had her back turned. After making the bones in her finger tips sharpen and grow out of the skin, she thrust her hand into his diaphragm and the crazed soldier dropped dead, leaving an opening for another soldier to grab her shoulder and dig his claws into it with one hand, preparing to strike with his other. Before the soldier could strike, Ariel knocked his arm up with one hand then uppercut his nose with her other hand, shattering the skull and pushing the bone in his nose up into his brain. She twisted around as she ducked under the fist of another soldier then grabbed his ankle and pushed up on his chest to send him into the air, then used his own momentum to fling him over her own body and over the edge of the building. She glared at the only remaining soldier that was standing about ten feet away from her, sneering and growling at her with venomous eyes. Ariel grabbed the blade-shaped bone that protruded form her elbow, pulled out of her arm, and hurled it at the soldier, who caught it less then a centimeter away from piercing his chest. The soldier put on a sinister smile as he glared at the woman who was returning the dark natured smile and glaring right back at him. Ariel began to sprint at him so that she could get some momentum before she jumped into the air and kicked the bone that the soldier was still holding less than a centimeter away from his chest into the rib cage, piercing his ribs and stabbing into his heart. She then spun in the air and kicked him in the cheek with enough force to break his neck and send his dead body spiraling into the air before it hit the floor hard. She focused on shrinking the bones back into her finger tips and they disappeared under the skin.

"Ariel, how nice to see you." Ariel turned to see Jackie land on the edge of the roof top.

"Jackie?" Ariel questioned, recognizing a face she hadn't seen in over five years, almost immediately, after seeing him up close. "What the hell are you doing here? Who are the rest of those men that you are with, because as far as I can tell they just tried to have me killed?" She interrogated and waved her finger at him in a threatening manner.

"They weren't trying to kill you, they were trying to capture you." Jackie informed her nonchalantly.

"And why were they trying to do that?" Ariel questioned suspiciously as the bone in her forearm slowly pushed out of her skin and sharpened to a fine point once again.

"Calm down, cutie, we just want to talk to you about something." Jackie explained as he stepped off of the ledge and took a few steps toward her. "Just come with me and talk to my leader, he is a great man, and he wants to talk to you about something."

"What if I don't want to talk to him." her growing agitation was becoming very apparent in her voice.

Jackie chuckled a little bit before he unfolded his arms and started scratching the back of his head. "look, Ariel, this will go a lot smoother if you just cooperate and come and talk to my boss down there."

She smiled slightly "You must not know me very well." she stated just before starting a sprint in the other direction. Ariel jumped from one roof top to the other with amazing grace and agility and continued running from one roof top to the next until a building that was a lot taller than the one she was on stood in her way. It did not stop her, she started climbing as quickly as she could to try and reach the top and escape her old acquaintance, who she was sure was chasseing her. Once she reached the top of the twelve story building, she began to climb over the ledge but stopped when she saw a pair of tattered old sneakers. She looked up to see the man she was trying to run from, smiling down at her.

"My little brother said that you would be fast." Jackie chuckled again as he offered a helping hand down to her. She grabbed the hand and pulled him off the ledge and threw him down to what she assumed would be his death. Ariel turned back and watched in horror as the fire at his feet propelled him until he was floating about thirty feet above her head.

"Dam, I forgot he could do that." Ariel whispered to herself as she looked upon the man floating in mid-air.

"This is going to be fun." a wicked smile crossed his face as his hair caught fire and a ball of flame appeared in the palm of his hand. Jackie flung the ball of fire at the young woman below him but she thrust herself upward and onto the roof and it just barley missed her, making a small explosion on the ledge she had just been hanging from. Ariel pulled the pointed bone out of her wrist to use it as a sword as Jackie began throwing even more balls of fire down at her. She jumped up at the floating man, slicing burning orbs in half as she flew through the air. Jackie moved to the side, she flew past him and began falling fast. He watched as she plummeted hopelessly toward the ground and his eyes widened at the realization of what his master would do if she perished on the pavement bellow. Jackie pointed the fire at his feet toward the sky and began shooting down through the air to try and catch her before she hit the ground. He reached out his hand for her as he drew closer to arms reach of her. When he finally got close enough, he grabbed on to her ankle and threw her up so he could catch her again.

Jackie now was carrying in his arms, as if she were a bride being carried across the threshold, as he flew toward his master.

"Put me down, now!" Ariel screamed as she began thrashing furiously to get out of his arms.

"Stop squirming," Jackie yelled down at her as he struggled to keep hold on the woman who had just grown claws and was preparing to strike him "and try and show a little more gratitude to the man that just saved your life."

"Saved my life?" Ariel glared up at the dark haired man, still baring her new bone claws. "you threw fireballs at me!" she gave him a quizzical look and then looked down at the street that lie hundreds of feet below her and decided that it wasn't such a good idea to try and fight the man that was keeping her from falling to what would surely be the death of her.

"Don't be so melodramatic, I was just having some fun." Jackie let an evil smile cross his face and a dark laugh escaped his throat as he grew closer to where his master stand in the heart of the city. They flew in silence until Jackie began to descend upon his master, who stood with his arms crossed, surrounded by destroyed tanks, crashed vehicles, and large piles of rubble.

"Master, I have found the girl." Jackie began to hover about ten feet above the ground and dropped Ariel, who flipped and landed with poise on her feet.

Venom eye's widened slightly as he stared at the woman who bare such a close resemblance to the woman in his dreams. Although he could never remember most of the dreams, that face was something that always stood out in his memory amongst the flashes of blurred images and horrific scenes that plagued his waking mind and haunted all of his dreams. That face was unmistakable, those dazzling blue eye's, that golden blonde hair, those tempting thin pink lips, the small nose that lie perfectly centered on a face more beautiful than he had ever seen. He regained his calm composure quickly and looked up at his servant. "Well done, Inferno." Venom then took a low bow toward the gorgeous woman that was giving him an icy stare. "Hello, I apologize for the-"

"Who the hell are you?" Ariel interrupted, "Why the hell have you been trying to capture me? What the fuck is going on here? Why are you-"

"Shut-up, woman!" Joey yelled at her as he emerged from a near by alley-way. "Do not speak to the master that way!" He demanded, stomping toward her in a very threatening manner.

"Joey?" Just as Ariel realized who the red haired man was, the man with glasses and the dark haired woman emerged from different alley-ways. Now that she was this close to them she now realized that the man with glasses was Guy and the woman was Nikki, she hadn't seen them since Travis had died, but she easily recognized them; having gone over that terrible night hundreds of times in her head. "Ok, just what the hell is going on here!?"

"Let me introduce myself, I am Venom and this is Rockfist, the Water Witch, Cyborg and I believe you have already met Inferno." The man with the crimson eyes suddenly announced with another low bow. "And together, we are the Black Demons."


End file.
